HT: Vox Populi

Take one 36-year-old high school coach who had been convicted of raping a 15-year-old. Sentencing guidelines allowed the judge to give up to 15 years in jail.

Add in a “father” who says it’s cool and the fact that both rapist and teenager were female. Sentence? Two years house arrest and 8 years probation. No jail.

WorldNetDaily has this report on the Florida deal, and in other reports, a 44-year old Wisconsin choir instructor received no jail time for sexual assault on a 16-year-old, and a 26-year-old Massachusetts former teacher gets a 2-year suspended jail sentence instead of getting four to eight years after raping a 15-year-old. Both parties in both those cases were male.

Kinda makes the 7½ years Mary Kay Letourneau faced seem kind of harsh, no? House arrest? Ask Martha Stewart how tough house arrest is, especially when you can slip off your GPS locator.

Is it any wonder why we have a clamor for federal sentencing guidelines and demand for registration of “sexual predators” when sentencing for similar crimes is so widely varied? Is the message here that it’s okay for people in authority to seek sexual gratification from kids, so long as they are the same gender? And maybe a child molester has paid his debt to society, but then maybe not? Sick.