School Monitors And Monsters in Meridian

I could hardly believe my ears when I heard the news.  It was horrifying news...  As if there was any good news today.  A corpse found floating in a canal.  An infant found burned in a burning barrel. Both bad.  One horrifying.  But perhaps even more disturbing- the news that a Meridian Middle School counselor was arrested over the weekend for child porn charges.  As I read the story this evening, the story only became worse...

Apparently said "counselor" is a part of an online group that shares child porn.  He pleaded guilty in court today to these charges... and worse.  Not only did he claim that he had produced some of that porn; but on top of that, it was revealed that a minor child was found in his home at the time of the police raid, a boy that he had been raping for the past several months.  The boy spoke of other boys this monster had abused... 

There are several things that drive me mad about this case.  The fact that this man was in the schools...  Only God knows how many victims he may have had there.  The more pressing question though, is this:  Did anyone at the school know about this?  Had there been any complaints made to the school administration?  I would love to say that I have confidence that no one knew of his secret.  I would love to say that no child had came forward to issue a complaint about inapropriate behaviour.  UNFORTUNATELY...  Recent history, history so disturbing, history from a much more prestigous schoool... Penn State...  This history has taught us that we cannot take any school official at their word concerning these matters... 

What happened at Penn State, some may say is an isolated incident.  But is it?  The level of corruption was so deep; no man with any sanity or love for innocence would have dared imagine...  The fact that so many knew and looked the other way...  With such a high profile case that has just sent shock waves across the nation, does Meridian Middle School really expect our community to not question how extensive their knowledge was of this situation? 

These are our children we are talking about.  We, as a community have put our children in their care.  We expect them to keep them safe.  It is not beyond comprehension for us to feel betrayed... 

The question remains now, what should be done?  What measure of justice to level out?  The counselor has already plead guilty...  I will give you my opinion, however harsh.

First off, we must DEMAND an investigation into the school.  We MUST demand that authorities take a long hard look into this case, to establish if there have been any prior incidents, to establish if there has been any other victim that may have came forward only to be ignored.  We must demand answers until we are assured that the school had no knowledge of this crime; and if there were those who knew and looked away- they must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

As far as this supposed counselor: it is a favor to society to move on without a trial.  Investigate him further, yes.  We must discover what other victims he may have.  But beyond that spare us the trial.  Spare the taxpayers.  Spare the children the trauma of reliving their stories.  And make the investigation a quick one...  And his sentence a quick one. 

There is only one judgement that can truly bring any kind of justice.  You see, this counselor has already sentenced his victims to a lifetime of suffering.  A life, for a life.  That is what a true and just sentence would be.  If he lives- he will live on with the possibility of offending again.  He will live on in a jail cell, where he will not regret what he has done- but rather his sick and twisted mind will relive, again and again to his demented pleasure, the pain of his victims.  No- no prison time for this man. 

In such cases as this, we must move forward to change the laws.  We must give judges the authority to level out what is fit for this crime.  This man, this monster that was hired by we the people to watch over our children, this vile filth that abused the hearts of those he was supposed to protect, must pay the ultimate price.  Capital punishment.  Execution. 

It is time that we start taking this crime seriously.  It is time we stop pretending the abuser is the victim.  How is it fair that the abuser and the victim both live on reliving the crime, one in pleasure the other in pain?  No.  Protect children of the future.  Let judges put molestors to death, and be done with it.