RANT OF THE DAY
July 18, 2007 - The St. Petersburg Times editorializes against the 5 1/2 year sentence for Daniel Zdrodowski, the 28-year-old music teacher who had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female student. TT - LINK for Zdrodowski
At sentencing, [Prosectuor] McCabe also objected to any punishment less than the 5 1/2-year prison term prescribed under state guidelines. [Judge] Ley, in turn, followed the guideline - even though it was blind to the unusual circumstances in play. In this case, the girl and her mother fought prosecution. The boyfriend is 11 years older. He and the girl claim to be in love, to have considered marriage and to have ended their relationship until she was to turn 18. Can a state that should be focused on violent crime really afford to find a space in its prisons for Zdrodowski?TT - The better question ought to be, Who is the adult here?
The prosecutor is right that Zdrodowski violated a public trust when he developed a romantic relationship with a student. That's one reason the Pinellas school system moved so quickly to investigate the original allegation, which came from another student, and why he lost his privilege to teach.
The real issue here is whether laws designed to protect children from sexual predators are the tools by which to judge more complicated affairs that involve the consent of both parties and both families involved. At the point a prosecutor seeks to throw a young woman in jail for refusing to behave like a victim, maybe someone needs to step back and look at the larger picture. Who is the victim here?
It wouldn't be half bad, except the Times Publishing Company that owns (funds, really) the St. Petersburg Times also owns Poynter Institute that trains a good many journalists. And you wonder why so many of our Peter Pan Press act the way they do? The editorial could have been written by a Harlequin Romance writer, but Harlequin is owned by Torstar - the Toronto Star.
