Chortlin’ Charlie and the Pedophile
Way back in June of 2004 a story broke about a very attractive young teacher arrested for having sex with a fourteen-year-old boy. Twenty-three-year-old Debra Lafave was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior. She was arrested at the home of her boy toy.
Some modeling or cheesecake photos of Lafave were circulated around the net. Fan sites sprang up. She became a celebrity of sorts.
On 23 November, 2005, she was given a sweetheart of a plea deal: No jail time plus house arrest. I’m not sure if she has restrictions on visitors. A result of this astounding deal is that many are noticing, perhaps for the first time, the tremendous difference in treating female and male criminal perpetrators. Still, too many just don’t get it. The mother of the victim commented that a jury may well have not convicted the perpetrator. She is astute. I suspect the prosecution was very much aware of the same not so remote possibility.
This year, in Georgia, a beauty queen got away with murder after acquittal by a jury. This woman decided to confront her ex-boyfriend while she carried a loaded pistol. She shot him in buttocks, and he died a few days later. The jury bought her argument that she was afraid. If a woman stalks and shoots a fleeing person, then she must be frightened according to this jury.
The feeling of many in the Lafave case is that she was doing a favor to the victim. But, if the victim is a fourteen-year old girl, these same people will claim the victim is scarred for life even if the sex were consensual. While the case was young, Charles Gibson of the ABC Good Morning America show interviewed the prosecutor. For some reason, Gibson could not get serious. He believed that the fourteen-year-old male should be happy about the affair. Yet, shortly thereafter, Gibson hosted a special about male coaches victimizing teenage girls with the purpose of claiming damage done to the girls.
I suspect that Gibson believes the myth that boys are sex hungry, but girls do not enjoy sex, and adult females enjoy only sex under a very narrow set of rules. If we examine the premise that Gibson held out that if the victim enjoys the act then it is OK, then why not write that into law? Another factor is the common belief that female virginity has some cash value and women are expected to use their sex act as a payment for marriage (or an engagement ring).
Gibson went on to laughingly claim that this sex predation was a “rite of passage.” Thus, boys are expected to be seduced by a teacher, preferably female, as part of their school experience. That was not the case at my school. It was a rather poor district and simply could not afford beautiful young teachers to teach us mindless horny teenage boys the intricacies of sexual performance. Gibson obviously attended school in a well-heeled area. So, do the less affluent school districts have heavier, sweatier, less-attractive sex groomers? I wonder why the school board for my district emphasized academic matters over my right to the rite of passage.
Cases of the less attractive and older women pedophiles have not had the notoriety of this case. I guess that is the way humans operate. Gibson has not given them any air time. If Lafave had been a three-hundred pound, sixty-year-old woman with a hygiene problem, I wonder if Chortlin’ Charlie Gibson would have been so gleeful.
After the plea bargain, Gibson faced an ABC news reporter questioning the deal and noting that as a crime against society that this was a very lenient result. I’ll give Gibson credit for not giggling but, he seemed a bit aloof from the issue and wondered “is it fair that she didn’t go to jail?”
Gibson’s earlier conduct reflects the ignorance of a great many Americans, including far too many judges. These believe that females are by their nature less culpable than men in any kind of crime. Attractive women seem to get an even greater break.
The Lafave assault was an assault of teacher on student. Teachers are expected to not take advantage of their students. Clearly Lafave did that. So for all those who feel strongly that Lafave was not culpable, how about applying the same rule to hunky male teachers. Or, stop harping on the adults who have company affairs when one has a higher managerial level than the other. After all, if it is OK for a teacher to seduce a student, adults seducing adults should be all right.
How about putting funds in the federal education programming so even poor schools like mine would have certified sex teachers. And, in the interest of equality, make appropriate sex teachers available to either sex.
Perhaps a good long and close look is needed to inspect the bigotries of newscasters, juries, judges, and politicians. Poor males are targeted for longer periods of jail time for lesser crimes (an extension of earlier American eugenics policies) with greater social consequences for all of us. Attractive women are allowed to get away with assaults upon children. Or for that matter, even murder.
Gibson’s earlier conduct reflects the ignorance of a great many Americans, including far too many judges. These believe that females are by their nature less culpable than men in any kind of crime. Attractive women seem to get an even greater break.
The Lafave assault was an assault of teacher on student. Teachers are expected to not take advantage of their students. Clearly Lafave did that. So for all those who feel strongly that Lafave was not culpable, how about applying the same rule to hunky male teachers. Or, stop harping on the adults who have company affairs when one has a higher managerial level than the other. After all, if it is OK for a teacher to seduce a student, adults seducing adults should be all right.
How about putting funds in the federal education programming so even poor schools like mine would have certified sex teachers. And, in the interest of equality, make appropriate sex teachers available to either sex.
Perhaps a good long and close look is needed to inspect the bigotries of newscasters, juries, judges, and politicians. Poor males are targeted for longer periods of jail time for lesser crimes (an extension of earlier American eugenics policies) with greater social consequences for all of us. Attractive women are allowed to get away with assaults upon children. Or for that matter, even murder.
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29Nov2005 11:20:00
in category Criminal Justice,Rants
