Saturday, March 25, 2006

Double Standards

One of my loyal readers has requested that I weigh in on a slightly different (although it's still important, read on) issue than what I've been doing. Today, I'll be discussing that Florida case involving a teacher who had sex with a student. She got off with no prison time, just three years of house arrest and seven of probation (the maximum sentence for the two crimes she was charged with was 15 years in prison, each) in a plea agreement she reached some time ago. And she's no longer allowed to teach or have contact with children of any kind. Just this week, she faced related charges in a neighboring county, and those charges were dropped completely.

Now, I'm sure it's not exactly the same in Florida, but in Iowa, if a male teacher had sex with a 14 year old female student multiple times, he would have done time in prison (a lot of time). If that guy tried to use his bipolar disorder and personal issues in his defense, the court and the people would've said "Oh, so he's an insane sex-offender, lock him up for life!" And if the girl in question didn't seem too much worse for the wear, everybody would've said "She's just been through a traumatic experience, you can't expect her to behave predictably."

Instead, the genders have been reversed, and suddenly being crazy is an excuse, and the 14 year old boy in question is evidence for "No lasting damage done, let's all just put it behind us."

All of this brings to mind the question "Is the justice system equal for men and women when it comes to sexual offenses like these?" Of course, there could be many causes of this tip in the scales, possibly women dominating the system and favoring their own kind (I doubt this happened because 1. The male race will have to die out before women can break our chokehold on power, 2.Women are superior in many aspects, fairness being one of them [no, I'm not a traitor, just a realist]). Or (slightly more likely) men brought this on themselves somehow, but I couldn't explain it if this is what went down. This is one place for you readers to leave comments, and they don't have to be extremely partisan. Just a nice, intellectual discussion that will benefit everyone.

12 comments:

Drew H. said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Drew H. said...

To answer my own question, I doubt it.

Anonymous said...

This teacher definitely should not be in the classroom and if she is mentally ill then she should be in an institution and not out in public. We have no way of knowing if she will continue to take her medication so that she is not a threat. We also have no idea if the level of medication will keep her from doing this again. There is no way that the young boy will be free of doubts and will be able to lead a normal life without extensive therapy. I hope he is getting that.

Drew H. said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

It's despicable... one of my old 5th grade teachers got prison time for having child porn on his school comp... and i had him as a teacher b4 he got busted... people are perverted

Anonymous said...

Well just the same way with Racism, it is only a one way in maney peoples mind White to Black no one ever thinks of Blacks to White.............Just like if its a Sexual attack its always Male to Female never Female to male.....................

Drew H. said...

Couldn't agree more, Luke. Exactly.

Anonymous said...

dan i think that you should write an artical about the jobs getting sent to mexico

Anonymous said...

steph is right I couldnt agree more

Drew H. said...

I removed it myself.

Anonymous said...

Я думаю, что Steph - господин Хансон

Anonymous said...

I think she had sex with all the people in the court and gave them all 50000000000000 bijilion million bucks too let her go with no time... i feel cheesey