Monday, March 27, 2006

WorldNetDaily: Father of LaFave's boy toy: Debra should have got jail

I sympathize--up to a point. But what was the State to do, if his son wouldn't testify against Ms. LaFave? The father wants "guidelines" and "protections" made part of the rules of the court in such cases. Such measures will go only so far, and might produce more acquittals than convictions--and such convictions as the State might obtain, might be subject to reversal on appeal, on the grounds that the defendant did not have her full right to face her accuser in court.

If it were my son, well, I would pray that he would never get involved with his teacher, and that he would come to me at once if she ever made a move to start such a relationship. And now that it's done, I'd tell him that part of being a man is accepting responsibility for his own actions. In this case, that means testifying against the woman openly in open court. And if it means facing ridicule, that's another price of growing up.

And while I'm on the subject: I think the appropriate sentence for child molestation should be exile for life. That's right, exile. Let the Navy or the Air Force build a Camp Sierra Echo X-ray on one of their bases on some remote location, such as an island in the Aleutian chain. Let all the States send their convicted sex offenders to this camp--or maybe two camps, one for each gender. And make them work, too. "Consensual"? That shouldn't matter--though if the other party, once he or she reaches adulthood, is infatuated enough to petition the government for "recall" of the convict, then State or federal Boards of Pardons and Reprieves can add that to their caseload of other petitions for pardons and reprieves.

But more to the point, our fellow travelers need to understand that sexual relationships are not the "harmless fun" that too many people seem to think they are.