By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Board
Count me as someone who's not impressed with the creative sentence that a Kansas judge levied against a 72-year-old man who pleaded guilty to molesting a child.
If Kansas Judge Ron Svaty thought LeRoy Schad is a danger to children and society, he should have sent him to prison.
If Svaty though Schad was unlikely to reoffend, as an expert testified during a hearing, a prolonged house arrest would suffice.
Forcing Schad to place signs on his home and his car identifying himself as a sex offender puts the man in danger and guarantees perpetual harassment.
There's also the problem of collateral damage. It can't be great for neighborhood property values to have a house posted with a sex offender ID sign.
According to a report by KWCH TV news in Wichita, the incident to which Schad pleaded guilty involved inappropriate touching with a child who was spending the night at Schad's home.
Barb Shelly, editorial board
Delicious
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Rock and hard place
People need to know so they can take extra precautions with their children. However, if they want to move, forget that. The housing market is bad enough without this insurmountable negative.
Trapped with a pervert...or uninformed, what a choice.
Would you rather...
Would you rather live in a country that is more sympathetic to the pervert child molester or to the victim?
Ross Balano Midwest Voices 2008
Thanks Barb, I agree!
Thanks for taking an unpopular stand Barb. I could not agree more. One has only to read other comments in this thread to know that this man's life and those in his family are at risk here. The climate in this country about sex offenders is ripe for vigilante justice. Ok, so maybe you, the public, dont care what happens to this man or his family. Is this the kind of country we want to live in where the government helps vigilantes find their next victim? I thought we were a better country then that. Guess I was wrong.
Poor LeRoy!
From my point of view there’s only one perversion related to this story. That would be what LeRoy Shad did to an unsuspecting child.
If you think this sentence puts LeRoy in danger then you haven’t heard what happens to child molesters in prison. Is he in greater danger now than he would be in prison? Probably not.
Should we worry that LeRoy might suffer perpetual harassment? Why should we? He’s 72 and presumably won’t suffer with it nearly as long as the young victim. What about that innocent young person? How will this affect him or her for the rest of his or her life? Society thinks this crime is bad enough (and I do too) that the Catholic Church has had to pay many millions of dollars in restitution for similar acts committed by priests. Since LeRoy presumably doesn’t have millions I think this punishment does fit the crime.
Ross Balano Midwest Voices 2008