The Wrong Lesson

Why it matters that teacher-student sex cases are vigorously prosecuted.

Apr 2, 2007 - Jason Chad Hicks was not a teacher. He recently pleaded no-contest to charges he repeatedly molested an 11-year-old girl. He was the live-in boyfriend of the girl's mother when the sexual assaults occurred from August 2005 to August 2006.

Hicks admitted sexual acts and said he knew the girl "did not want to," according to a police report.

Under a plea agreement, Hicks will serve 30 years in prison for one count of attempted sexual battery on a child under age 12, and 15 years in prison for a second count of attempted sexual battery on a child under age 12. The sentences will run consecutively . He will also be listed on the Internet as a sexual predator

Outside the courtroom, Hicks' mother and her husband, Craig Keys, also Hicks' stepfather, called the sentencing unfair.

"The system is flawed," Keys said. "How is it that people like Debra LaFave get off on house arrest?".

TT - Well, aside from the fact that LaFave's victim did not want to testify, he was a legal minor (age 14) but not 11-years-old (statutory rape category), the sex was not coerced by LaFave, and the family of the boy requested the sentence to avoid having him testify. It is, however, the media attention and interview with Matt Lauer that bestow celebrity status to the peole like LaFave that forms the education of the public.

It's ratings without any responsibility. Infotainment without education. It's a circus show of creeps and freaks and the morally deformed.