What the fuck is wrong with this country, part 67.

[elfs]

Ten years in jail and a lifetime on the sex offender's list because one kid butt-slapped another in seventh grade. Look, why don't we just admit that we want our kids to stay in heremetically sealed boxes until they're eighteen, at which point we decant them into the system and expect them to figure out all the rules on their own?

Comments

[lionman.livejournal.com]

I would so like to be judge in that case.

Or perhaps on the jury, though it shouldn't be a jury-trial, since they're under aged, and not remotely close enough to be tried as adults, and thus get the 10-year sentance and be placed on the sex-offender list.

I'm curious to know if the parents were present while being questioned, since that's typically how statues work in most places. Of course the DARE officer could say he was just present while the Vice Principal questioned the boys.

Either way, if I were the judge who had this case brought before me, I'd likely dismiss it without prejudice and fine both the officer and Vice Principal for wasting the court's time. (This presumes the boys don't have a long-standing record of being troublemakers, and that this wasn't a repeat offense.)

[omahas.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to know if the parents were present while being questioned, since that's typically how statues work in most places. Of course the DARE officer could say he was just present while the Vice Principal questioned the boys.

I've been in a similar situation with Kouryou-chan when she was only three or four years old, and I can say from that experience (and speaking with other parents in other experiences) that these officials frequently violate statutes to interrogate kids without the parents present, etc.

Kouryou-chan and two other kids had decided to play a game of "if you show me, I'll show you" at her daycare...Kouryou-chan had been the instigator. In any case, the daycare provider had informed me and the other two parents about it that day. I and one of the other parents just chalked it up to kids being kids and had a sit-down with them to inform them of why this was not appropriate behavior in public.

The third parent had a hissy-fit and called DSHS on the daycare provider.

I and the other parent found out when I got a call from the daycare provider telling me that a DSHS rep had showed up and interrogated the other two kids (without a parent being present) and the only reason she had not spoken to Kouryou-chan was that she wasn't there afternoons. The DSHS rep had intended on showing up the next morning to talk with Kouryou-chan.

I did my research, called the other parent and spoke to her, and when I brought Kouryou-chan in, I grilled the DSHS rep, copies of RCW statutes in hand, about how she had no right to talk to my child without my being present, etc. I was furious with her.

As it turned out, of course, the daycare rep was perfectly okay, and the third parent was the one who had issues...she apparently had a history of problems with her child and with DSHS. But it infuriated me that the DSHS rep said that the daycare provider should be required to report such an event to DSHS...an event that was very obviously just children being children.

This is the government becoming too involved in our, and our children's, lives...and in my opinion is the cause of many of the problems our children have.

[lionman.livejournal.com]

I always tell parents to be -active- and HIGHLY involved in their childrens school. When stuff like this happens, being on a first-name basis with the administrators and teachers, will go a long way to averting stupid things from happening.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

This also highlights why we should oppose social disabilities for "sex offenders" such as McCain is proposing. When we hear "sex offender" we are likely to think of someone who rapes and murders little girls, but of course someone like that is more likely to be spending the rest of his life in Federal Prison or in an insane asylum than to be moving into your neighborhood. The people who would be denied any ability to participate in the modern world under such laws might just be butt-slappers unlucky enough to get a psycho for a prosecutor and morons on the jury.

[yarnaddict.livejournal.com]

Uhm... buh?

Reposted in my LJ.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kengr]

This was all over the local news when it happened ( a couple of months back). But apparently there was more going on than just the butt slaps. Since it was a while back I don't recall the details.

It was still iffy, but as I recall it wasn't as totally out of line as the first reports made it seem.