We've lost our minds

[Lighthawk]

Police: Middle Schooler Fondled!
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 4:18 PM

First, the headline: Greensburg Middle Schooler Fondled Girl, 12

Yikes, that sounds terrible, doesn't it? People shouldn't run around fondling 12-year-old girls, for crying out loud, and I sure hope they caught the middle schooler who fondled that poor girl and—wait a minute. A 12-year-old girl is a middle schooler. So... what we're talking about here is one middle schooler fondling another middle schooler?

Yes, that's exactly what we're talking about. The fondler—who's made to sound like sexual predator in that headline—was a 13-year-old middle schooler. He's a classmate of the "victim," in fact, and the fondling was consensual. And you'll never guess what happened next:

Police have charged a 13-year-old Greensburg Salem Middle School student with fondling a 12-year-old student when they sneaked away to a band equipment room during school hours. Greensburg police aren't identifying the suspect charged in Westmoreland County Juvenile Court. They said his actions are criminal even though the younger female student consented to the fondling because, under the law, she is deemed too young to consent. Police said the incident happened Dec. 16 after the students met in a hallway and walked together to the band room at the school.

So now it's a crime for a couple of middle-school students to make out in a band equipment room. It's not just ill-advised, it's not just worryingly precocious sexual behavior or appropriate sexual exploration (depending on your POV), and it's not a matter for parents and school administrators to address. It's a crime.

We've lost our minds.

We've lost our minds...yup.

Source

[colmquinn]

[Mikey]

And, the human race's descent into self-induced oblivion has begun.

[Lighthawk]

Anyone else enjoying the double standard going on here, cause I sure am. Clearly it's all his fault, that poor, oh so innocent girl.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

And, the human race's descent into self-induced oblivion has begun.

Rather nice to be part of the last generation with common fucking sense...

[Nickswitz]

Yeah, I mean don't do it in school, but a crime? Really?

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Might as well lock up all of humanity...

...

Let's hope they don't take that seriously.

[Tsukiyumi]

I'm not surprised.

Disgusted, yeah. What a crock of sh*t.

[Mikey]

Well, if it's a crime for a pre-teen boy to cop a feel on a willing pre-teen girl, then I was John friggin' Dillinger by the time I got to high school.

[Deepcrush]

Which is why we don't even bother with reporting PDA in schools anymore. Because as soon as you do, lawyers and advocates and councilors and every other type of social leach pops up to piss on the system.

[Atekimogus]

Apart from being completely retarded....

....why is the boy charged with fondling and not the girl? Because he had it 13th birthday a bit earlier? Bit sexist here imho

[Reliant121]

Precisely that I think. At least, thats what we were told last time we had sex-ed and this is our laws. The older is generally in trouble, but I think if its a boy he always gets the main trouble even if he is a little younger. So I think its just being a boy and being a little older.

I May be talking bull, I honestly cannot remember.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I swear to God, some people really deserve a healthy round of bitch-slapping to have some sense put into them.

Teenagers of similar age acting on their hormone deserves criminal treatment?

*slap* *slap*

[Reliant121]

From what a police officer I talked to had said, usually they try and process it as a "slap on the wrist" thing. The problem comes when either of the parent's kicks up a storm, in that situation they have no option but to press charges.

[SolkaTruesilver]

From what a police officer I talked to had said, usually they try and process it as a "slap on the wrist" thing. The problem comes when either of the parent's kicks up a storm, in that situation they have no option but to press charges.

So these parents decide to send a 13 year old in court because their daughter was seduced by him. After all, their daughter was probably scarred for life.

And if not, they certainly made sure the boy would be, eh?


Another mighty example of the stupidity of american parents, right in the same niche as the ones who demanded The Simpsons movie to be rated PG-13 because of Bart's wee-wee and who shook sky and heaven because of the Nipplegate.

I am sure their overreaction over these issues caused ten times more harm to the children's psyche than the issue itself. When I was a kid, I remember (accidently) getting a glimpse of breast on TV. And my parents reacted the perfect way: they didn't made a big deal out of it, and I quickly forgot it.

Movies like Jurassik Park probably did more to traumatise methan any breasts ever did.