PRATTVILLE — The parents of a young Autauga County sex crime victim want something done.
Three years ago, their daughter was victimized by a then-14-year-old boy. What happened next combines the heartache of a family trying to get back to “normal,” a young man paying his debt to society, old wounds being reopened and a bureaucratic maze of board of education meetings and potential legislative action.
This is nauseating. It is another act of retribution. They destroy a child’s entire life. I am not justifying his behavior. It just seems like they have successfully criminalized being a dumb kid. Wouldn’t some kind of a diversion program with counseling, guidance and mentoring make more sense?
I also see this as yet another example in a long list of examples of making police work easier at the expense of our rights. “Let’s justify our actions and place the responsibility back on the general public to watch over this imaginary threat”. This way the police can reduce their potential liability make police work easier. More re-election votes for prosecutors and politicians all at our expense. If just one child is saved….all at the expense of a child. Dang this pizzes me off!
At the time, the young man was enrolled in an Autauga County high school. In the wake of the court’s action, he was expelled from Autauga County Schools for one year, the girl’s parents said.
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Nice move…now you put them in contact for longer, as they’re a grade closer.
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What we would like to see is a change in policy statewide in dealing with juvenile sex offenders in the classroom,” he said. “We understand that they have the right to receive an education. We think a better approach would be to remove any convicted juvenile sex offender from a classroom setting.
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Umm, there is no “right” not to have to view or experience something that brings up harmful memories or events. So I’m just a bit fuzzy about the legal standing for isolating someone that’s not violating school policy (though honestly, he’d probably get a better education in a smaller class size than AL probably offers!).
Besides, according to the school’s attorney, “Parents and students of both parties were treated fairly and equitably.” But we all know “fairly and equitably” is not what victims, or their advocates, want.
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Even after the juvenile sex offender reaches “majority,” or 19 years old…
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Ah yes, good old AL, with majority age defined as 19, not 18. Is there another State that does this?
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The treatment of “Low-level juvenile sex offenses lead to long-term collateral consequences,” the report reads.
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I hate to break it to the authors of said report, but the treatment of *any* RC, of *any* age, leads to long-term collateral consequences….ones that can and do change with the political winds and hatred. (Though the winds never subside.)
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Chambliss’ bill would expand the pool of people notified of low-risk juvenile sex offenders to include the superintendent of education and each individual board of education member.
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Yeah, this is smart. Let’s give the info to the board members, who are nothing but political hacks in the community who will tell all sorts of “trusted agents.”
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(Sorry, snark, day two. Must be all the rain we’ve had!)
I think the reporter made a mistake about age of majority being 19. They should have said that was 18? Age of consent and age of majority are different things. However, the age of consent in Alabama is 16. From the articles of the Code of Alabama: 13A-6-70. At the time, boy was 14, girl was under 12.