Parents, Explain Age of Consent to Your Son...Right Now!

First, we know your darling son would never take advantage of a young girl...not even if she looks 21 and says "Here it is!" Okay, but have you ever really talked to him about it? After he's arrested and convicted and on the sex offender registry for life, it's just a little too late.

We've seen some very interesting comments this weekend about a Marion County man who was arrested for Second Degree Rape. Apparently the charges can be upgraded if it's proved he influenced her decision to have sex by giving her pills. We're going to take a guess that it was homecoming wherever he was Friday night and he had a little nip and wasn't thinking clearly. Now he's in the slammer. 

If your teenage son is a paragon of chastity, explain Second Degree Rape to him anyway. If he's 18, he'll be charged as an adult, placed in jail with adults, and it's remotely possible he'll be put in prison with adults. Think about that and have that talk now.

Jared Brown

Now let's return to alcohol and homecoming or whatever party is taking place on any weekend. We know that 19 is certainly an adult and that parents are not legally responsible for their child's actions. That doesn't mean they shouldn't try to influence them for good.

If you know your darling daughter likes to drink, likes to steal, likes whatever perversion is popular at the moment, you still owe it to her to at least attempt to guide her in her choices. If you don't do that, please don't be complaining about the unfair legal system that arrests upper middle class thieves.

Alasia Jade Montgomery

Almost every week we receive e-mails about unfair laws. One man once told us only murder should be against the law. If you don't like a law, talk to your state legislator to have it changed. If he's not busy padding his pockets with bribes from ALFA he may even help you with it.

Don't Shoot Him, He's Insolent

We received the following petition in our e-mail earlier this week:

Petition by Les Anderson

Elkhart, Indiana

94,469

Supporters

Sign Les’ petition

When my son Zach met a girl through an online dating app, she said she was 17 years old and lived about twenty minutes away. The two decided to meet up and had consensual sex. Zach was a typical 19-year-old studying computer science at Community College -- until he found out that the girl had lied about her age and was really 14. Though the girl admitted to lying about her age and even her parents agreed the encounter was completely consensual and that Zach didn't do anything wrong, Zach found himself convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charges. He'll now have to be on a sex offender registry for the next 25 years. He just finished serving 90 days in jail. Now he's on probation for the next 5 years and he's lost all of his work toward his computer science degree -- part of his sentence is that he can't use a computer or smartphone or live in a house with internet access. He can't even talk to anyone under 17. This has effectively ruined Zach's life. And it's clear to anyone who hears his story that he is not a sexual predator who needs to be on a sex offender list for 25 years. He's a teenager who met another teen like so many others do, online. In court, the girls parents didn't just ask the judge to show Zach leniency, they called for the case against him to be dropped altogether. Zach plead guilty but only because we were told he would be a candidate for Holmes Youthful Trainee Act status. The HYTA allows first-time offenders older than 17 but not yet 21 to avoid harsher penalties like the state-mandated 25-year listing on the sex offender registry. But the judge refused to listen to us, Zach, or the parents of the girl. Now Zach must live his life with a scarlet letter. He has to walk down the street and think: ‘Am I too close to a school? Is there a child who’s close to me? It's not right and it's not what the law was intended to do. As parents, all we want is for our son to be able to pursue his dreams and ambitions in life. We want him to be able to live a normal life. So we're asking that the Judge, the Prosecutor's office and the MDOC to drop all charges or grant HYTA to Zach. And we need your help. Please sign our petition to support Zach and say to the Judge, the Prosecutors office and the MDOC that the sentence given here is wrong, harsh, and unfair.

Sad, isn't it? Oh, not the young man's plight, but that his parents and about 95K other idiots think that this young man is being singled out.

In Alabama, there is only a two-tiered system; the young man would also be on the sex offender list for life if convicted here. While we do feel some small amount of sympathy for him, we have to ask:

1. Why would Zach trust some girl he didn't know to tell him the truth?
2. How did this crime come to light if no one was complaining?
3. Why are these parents so vocal about his sentence, but never taught their son about the law?

Parents, please tell your sons about the charge of Second Degree rape. A local news site just today posted charges against a Tim Vandiver of Killen who was similarly accused of statutory rape.

It really doesn't look good on a resume'.



Shoalanda