This is Once Fallen's video and commentary on the Rally In Tally, a collaborative effort between various organizations within the Anti-Registry Movement (ARM).
The purpose of the rally was to bring a bold message to one of the strongholds of the war on Registered Citizens-- The state of Florida. In the past year or so, Florida pushed a "scorched earth" policy against Registered Citizens, a policy endorsed by Ron Book and his daughter, Lauren.
Lauren Book is using the charity "Lauren's Kids" as a front for a pending political campaign. She collected millions from various companies, including GEO Group, the private prison industry.
A dozen brave souls challenged the Books and the Florida Legislature at the finish line of a high-profile march across the state. Lauren Book challenged her critics to meet her face-to-face and when her critics arrived, she ran away like a coward.
A couple in Florida is facing fifteen years in prison after they were caught having sex on a public beach. The incident happened at Bradenton Beach and apparently there was a number of witnesses including children. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks discuss. Do you think the couple should get jail time and be forced to be registered sex offenders?
Advocates of sex offender registry reform will gather in a peaceful protest at the Florida State House in Tallahassee FL on April 22, 2015 during the annual Lauren Book's 'Walk In My Shoes' event. The Rally in Tally is a joint collaboration among civil rights activists; we seek to raise awareness of the sex offender law reform movement, provide educational material, and garner attention to our plights at a high-profile event that brings politicians, celebrity advocates, and the news media together.
The intent of the Rally in Tally is not to attack, dispute, or criticize the efforts of Lauren's Kids as it relates to raising awareness and the prevention of sexual abuse in America. However, we are taking a stand against the policies of the Lauren's Kids foundation in its efforts to promote and lobby for Florida's "scorched Earth" policies. Lauren Book and her powerful lobbyist father, Ron Book, have pushed a number of harmful policies under the Lauren's Kids banner, including tough residency restrictions that forced registered citizens in Miami-Dade County to sleep under bridges, in abandoned parking lots, and even along train tracks and warehouses. In the past year Lauren's Kids supported a law marking the state-issued ID cards of some registrants with a scarlet letter, creating "pocket parks" to expand exclusion zones against registrants, and is currently supporting a lifetime GPS bill for all registered persons. In addition, Lauren Book has referred to all registered citizens as "monsters," "incurable," a "clear and imminent danger," and "ticking time bombs."
We cannot make the Rally in Tally a success without you, our fellow activists. We need people willing to travel to Tallahassee to present the Book family, Florida Legislature and ill-informed public with a visual representation of the unconsidered consequences of hastily-devised legislation. Registered citizens, civil rights activist and registrant families are strongly encouraged to attend. Our hope is that anyone reading this will realize each person is needed at this rally to stand publicly for our rights. If you cannot attend the event, then we encourage you to support the rally movement by making a donation to assist in paying for supplies or sponsor someone who otherwise would not be able to participate.
Please send us an email at contact@womenagainstregistry.com for more information and to receive periodic updates about this exciting event!
A former Florida cop who forced undocumented immigrants to have sex with him will not be required to register with the state as a sex offender, thanks to a plea deal that one attorney called “shocking and shameful to the whole county.”
Months after he was named “Officer of the Year” in 2008, former Broward Sheriff's deputy Jonathan Bleiweisswas charged with multiple sex crimes. About 20 male undocumented immigrants accused Bleiweiss of sexually assaulting them.
The men alleged that Bleiweiss molested them during pat-downs and threatened them with deportation if they refused to perform sex acts.
Last week, Bleiweiss and prosecutors reached a bafflingly lenient plea agreement that would bring a conclusion to all seven of the cases pending against him.
So the former deputy pleaded guilty to multiple counts of battery, stalking and false imprisonment. He will serve five years in prison, but will not be classified as a sex offender.
Before he was ever suspected of committing any crimes, the openly gay Bleiweiss told a local newspaper that early in his career, one of his supervisors taunted him by calling him "sex offender."
Now, with that label never having been more appropriate, Bleiwiss will not have to wear it.
Police posed as underage teens online to lure men into breaking the law as part of an apparent revenue scheme by Florida law enforcement agencies, according to an investigation of newly released public records.
Emails and other online communications analyzed by WTSP-TV revealed that many of the men who were eventually arrested were not interested in meeting children but were instead seeking adult sex partners – until they encountered undercover officers.
Law enforcement agencies fought open-records requests by the TV station, which eventually gained access to investigation reports from cases that resulted in arrest – but not from those that did not.
Police fought the requests by claiming the investigations remained open, but one agency claimed it had already destroyed records from one sting just one month after it was conducted.
Clearwater police seized 19 cars in January 2014, the station reported, when a joint sting with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office arrested 35 men in one weekend.
The two departments arrested at least 20 other men three months later and 11 more in September in similar stings that netted 12 more seized vehicles, the station reported.
One of the men arrested in the first sting paid $10,000 to get his 2014 Lexus returned, and the 24-year-old won’t get any of that money back even though all felony charges were eventually dropped in his case.
The station found that many of the men arrested in the stings had posted or responded to personal ads seeking adults, but police often steered the conversation to underage children or posed as adults with younger siblings who were interested in meeting.
Former Army JAG tells 10 Investigates the Air Force is breaking the law by participating in local sex stings where no military members are involved.
PINELLAS COUNTY - Not only have Central Florida law enforcement officers violated federal rules in conducting "To Catch a Predator"-inspired sex stings, but 10 Investigates has learned they may also violate longstanding federal law that prohibits the use of military resources to enforce state laws.
In a recent deposition, the agent indicated his goal was to try and trap service members who might be willing to break the law. But he also admitted to targeting -- and helping arrest -- civilians as well. According to an operation plan from a recent Pinellas County sting, the agent, William Glidewell, acted as a "chatter," communicating with potential investigative targets online. He was put up in a Clearwater Beach hotel for four days and reported to the sting's lead agencies, the Clearwater Police Department and Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
"It's odd that you would have a military (investigator) being so treated like civilian law enforcement," said Charles Rose, a Stetson Law professor and retired Army JAG Corps member. "You cannot assign military personnel -- on orders -- to a (local law enforcement) organization."
10 Investigates previously showed how the sex stings were taking valuable resources away from other areas of law enforcement and frequently targeted young men who were merely looking for women their own age.
This is the first of a two-part series examining how law enforcement is blurring the lines on due process.
POLK COUNTY - In the decade since Chris Hansen and "To Catch a Predator" popularized Internet sex stings, more than 1,200 men in Florida alone have been arrested, accused of preying on underage teens and children for sex.
But as the stings put more and more men behind bars, detectives are working harder and harder to keep up their arrest numbers. And the tactics they're using to put alleged sexual offenders in jail are sweeping up large numbers of law-abiding men, too.
A yearlong investigation by 10 Investigates reveals many of the men whose mugshots have been paraded out by local sheriffs in made-for-TV press conferences were not seeking to meet children online. Instead, they were minding their own business, looking for other adults, when detectives started to groom and convince them to break the law.
While detectives used to post ads suggesting an underage teen or child was available for sex, they now routinely post more innocuous personal ads of adults on traditional dating sites. When men – many of them under 25 with no criminal history - respond, officers switch the bait and typically indicate their age is really 14 or 15 years old. However, sometimes the storyline isn't switched until the men, who were looking for legal love, already start falling for the undercover agent.
According to arrest affidavits inspected by 10 Investigates, law enforcement is also now routinely making first contact with men who have done nothing wrong, responding to their ads on dating sites like PlentyOfFish.com. After men start conversing with what they think are adults, officers change the age they claim to be, but try to convince the men to continue the conversation anyway.
Other examples include undercover officers showing interest in a man, then later introducing the idea of having sex with the undercover's "child." If the men indicate they weren't interested, they were still often arrested for just talking to the adult.
Critics of the stings, including a number of prominent Tampa Bay law enforcement leaders, tell 10 News the operations make for better press conferences than they do crime fighting. Many of the men who are arrested for sexual predator crimes see little jail time.
But Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, when asked about over-aggressive detectives, instead went on the offensive: "The concern (I have) is that you inflate your investigative reporting to make it glitzy."
Parents, remember this the next time you let your child out of the house alone.
You could be treated like a criminal for it!
This is what we get when we continue to let the idiots in congress trample on others rights! We get a police state where Big Brother is the kids parents, not you!
PORT ST. LUCIE - UPDATE: DCF says that the investigation is "very much open" and they are not planning on dropping the case as of right now.
A mother faces a charge of child neglect after she allowed her son to go to a local park alone. She says he's old enough but Port St. Lucie Police disagree. Now she's fighting back.
"I'm totally dumbfounded by this whole situation," said the mother, Nicole Gainey.
It began last Saturday afternoon when Gainey gave her son Dominic permission to walk from their house to Sportsman's Park .
"Honestly didn't think I was doing anything wrong," says Gainey, "I was letting him go play."
It's a half mile from their Port St. Lucie home. Dominic says it only takes him about 10 to 15 minutes to get there. During the walk, the 7-year-old passed a public pool. Someone there asked him where his mom was.
"They asked me a couple questions and I got scared so I ran off to the park and they called the cops," says Dominic Guerrisi.
Dominic was playing at the park when an officer pulled up.
"They said 'where does your mom live,' " says Dominic.
Police took him home. That's when his mom was arrested and charged with child neglect. Gainey says she was shocked.
"My own bondsman said my parents would have been in jail every day," says Gainey who paid nearly $4,000 to bond out.
The officer wrote in the report that Dominic was unsupervised at the park and that "numerous sex offenders reside in the vicinity."
"He just basically kept going over that there's pedophiles and this and that and basically the park wasn't safe and he shouldn't be there alone," says Gainey.
She believes Dominic is mature enough to go to the park alone during the day. Gainey adds her son always has a cell phone which she calls to check on him.
"That I'm here and safe," says Dominic.
Gainey plans to fight the felony charge. But after this she won't let Dominic go to the park alone. She's afraid she'll be arrested again.
The St. Lucie County State's Attorney's office says there is no law that specifies how old a child has to be before he or she can go somewhere unsupervised. It's done on a case-by-case basis.
A Seminole County deputy was arrested Thursday after investigators accused him of soliciting sex from a 17-year-old girl through a series of Facebook messages.
David Rodriguez, a 28-year-old patrol deputy, recently received recognition from Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger for saving a man after a boating accident earlier this year.
Rodriguez now accused of using a computer to solicit sex from a child.
He and the girl both participated in martial arts tournaments. When they met, she was 6 and he was about 17. The two kept in touch over the years, his arrest report stated.
The girl told deputies that she and Rodriguez, who is married and has a newborn, started out with friendly text messages.
Eventually the two became Facebook friends and would send private messages back and forth.
After the girl's 17th birthday, the conversations became sexual, the report stated.
Rodriguez admitted to soliciting sex from the girl but said the two never actually met for sex.
"Rodriguez stated that he was going to keep trying to put off meeting with [the girl] for sex until she was 18 years old," the report stated. The detective "confronted Rodriguez that on several occasions that they arranged to meet for sex, it was [the girl] who had to cancel and Rodriguez did not respond."
The Facebook exchange was discovered because the girl's father saw the messages when she left her social-media profile open on a home computer.
The father did not confront his daughter because he was concerned she would not be cooperative.
When she was interviewed, the girl told officials she had a crush on Rodriguez for years and said when his child was born on July 9, she realized that Rodriguez was trying to take advantage of her.
She said she wanted the sexual conversations to stop but didn't know how to end the relationship.
The Seminole County Sheriff's Office is in the process of firing Rodriguez. He had been a patrol deputy since February 2010.
Rodriguez received a Life Saving Award in May from Eslinger. According to the Sheriff's Office, Rodriguez helped save a man who capsized his kayak.
According to investigators, Rodriguez admitted to the crime and turned himself into the Seminole County jail.
PALM BEACH COUNTY - There are close to one thousand sex offenders living in Palm Beach County alone.
A major vote Tuesday, could allow registered sex offenders to live closer to schools and parks. Later tonight, Palm Beach County Commissioners will debate the heated issue.
According to State law, sexual offenders and predators cannot live within one thousand feet from specified locations where children gather.
In Palm Beach County, the law is 2500 feet, but the county wants to change it to be the same as the state.
The following was sent to us via the "Tell Us Your Story" form and posted with the users permission.
By Sloan44: It is my wife that is the innocent victim in this case. I was arrested in 2000 for downloading six photos of a minor. My time has been completed,service rendered. I moved from Florida after time completed and met the most wonderful women ever,we married that year. The property we were to share our lives on was set in a small town in Ohio. I followed rules and registered at the local sheriffs office,only to find the property to be 86 feet shy of the 1000 foot rule. I had to find another place,pack and leave. These unjust laws just separated two newlyweds. I located a trailer park two miles away, I then registered it with local police. My wife,when we met,suffered from heart disease with three stints in her heart.She could not tend to chores on the five acre property so I was there to run the tractor and household repairs. I did visit her daily (Ohio law,at the time,could not prevent me from visiting) and she would visit at my place.One day after mowing the lawn the local deputies came to the door asking for me. That is when I was arrested for failing to register my address.The law claimed I was not living at the trailer park I registered under. I got out on bail and then presented proof to the police. I presented them with my rent receipt given to me,and dated,the day prior to my arrest.They would not believe me and would not drop charges. I hired an attorney, we went to the courthouse, and in while speaking with the attorney he would exit a couple times to speak with the prosecuting attorney prior to trial. He returned saying he got the charges down to "Attempted to fail registration" which was a misdemeanor. I said "NO I am innocent". That is when my wife looked at me with tears running and said to me: "Honey,I know your right but..my heart, I cant take much more of this". That is when, for the sake of her health, I bit the bullet and took the offer. I paid my fines and community service in that county of Ohio. There are many eyes and ears in that small town/county and we found it was ones down the road that made the charge. My wife and I spoke,I would leave first and she would follow. I notified the law, then relocated to Florida. My wife's family, property, is in this small town and,from time to time, she must travel there to handle matters. This recent time is when she had health problems. It was found that three arteries were blocked, one was 85%,one 90%. A cardiologist ordered a angioplasty. It was rough but after four hours, and extra attempts, they were cleared. Since we met she had other heart stints placed but this surgery made heart stint #14 and #15. And I could not be there. I could not stay on our property nor do I have the money for a hotel/motel. My wife fears that I may be arrested by the same county sheriff (Whom was out for blood the first time) will cause trouble again. She was released but the next day she was back in for severe pain radiating from shoulder to chest, and she remains there at this time. But again, the fear of being there and problems with the sheriff,( mainly her being in fear of my welfare ) I am unable to be at her side. I am in tears daily as she is as well. I would not doubt that some heart stints,needed to be inserted, were based on the pressure she went through regarding the registry. When we married the words of Matthew 19:6 were spoken. But that does not mean anything to the ones that make these unjust laws that hurt innocent family members of registrants. This sex offender registry must be abolished!
The colony of homeless sex offenders in Miami-Dade County is once again being moved… 100 yards to the east!
After several months of complaining that over 100 registrants were sent to live in his parking lot, the owner of Adolfo’s House Beauty Supply received the concession from local police, who evicted the approximately 133 registrants living transient at the corner of NW 71st Street and 36th Court on Wednesday night.
Registrants were told that they would no longer be able to stay there at night and would be subject to arrest for trespassing if they were found there the following night.
Yesterday morning, registrants began making frantic calls to their probation officers asking what to do. Most are on GPS monitoring devices and if they are not at that street corner, they would similarly be subject to arrest.
The Miami-Dade probation office’s solution was to move them one block over. 100 yards to the east, which is the street corner where they spent their night last night. Within the next 48 hours 133 registrants will be scrambling to get their drivers licenses updated, as required by law, to “transient at 71st and 35th” instead of “71st and 36th”, paying the $25 fee for the address change and jeopardizing their employment to get it done.
… until the Miami-Dade Sex Offender Shuffle moves them elsewhere.
A Florida activist has said that he discovered that he was framed for public masturbation by one officer who did not like the idea of police being recorded on video.
In a video posted to his YouTube channel late last week (Below), Cop Block Central Florida activist Michael Burns explains that he was watching Lakeland police officer Javier Perez as he worked an off-duty shift at Hookah Palace in January.
During the filming, an on-duty police officer arrives, and tells him that he has been reported for doing something in his vehicle that he “should be doing in private.” That officer releases Burns after quickly concluding that he was only recording police.
Burns later obtained an audio recording of the person who reported him, who tells the dispatcher that he thinks a “suspicious person” is “masturbating.” He also obtains the telephone number of the caller. An Internet search determined that the number belonged to officer Perez.
Perez’s sergeant also confirmed to Burns on camera that an officer was being investigated for making false reports, but he refused to give the officer’s name.
Photography Is Not A Crime’s Carlos Miller, however, doubted that an internal investigation would result in justice.
“But we already know that when cops investigate cops, it usually leads to cops protecting cops,” he wrote. “But since it’s already been confirmed the calls were made to the department’s non-emergency line, we can already see where they are going with this; essentially preparing to sweep this under the carpet by informing Burns that no law or policy was broken because the calls were not made to 911.”
Burns pointed out that Florida Statute 817.49 does not limit false reports to the 911 emergency line.
Burns was scheduled to meet with the sergeant who was conducting the internal investigation on Tuesday night, and he planned to record the meeting.
PINELLAS COUNTY - Following another major bust of suspects accused of seeking sex with underage children, 10 Investigates renewed its public records requests into how law enforcement operates its stings. But again, multiple agencies are refusing to turn over documents, casting doubt over whether they're playing by the rules.
But it's not just the lack of transparency casting doubt over the January sting, which resulted in 35 arrests. Attorneys tell 10 Investigates they believe the majority of the men have yet to even be charged, three months after their arrests.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Clearwater Police Department, and FDLE have all cited various public record exemptions in their refusals to turn over records from the January sting, while the Manatee Co. Sheriff's Office has refused to turn over records from similar stings.
10 Investigates will continue to fight for access to public records.
This is just another politician trying to make a name for himself by exploiting registrants and fear. You have probation, parole and police officers who need to do their jobs, enforce the laws. You don't need another law to create yet another "strike force" to go after those who are not obeying the draconian and unconstitutional laws!
A Senate committee swiftly and unanimously approved legislation Monday to create a statewide "strike force" to hunt down sex offenders who don't register with police and submit to required supervision.
Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Jacksonville, said there are 746 registered sex offenders who have absconded from parole supervision or other law enforcement oversight. - Woah, when did Mr. Bean start making laws?
"We just don't know where they are -- or, more importantly, where they are going to strike next," he told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. The panel voted unanimously for his bill (SB 1416, PDF) that sets up the task force. - Oh come on... Sex offenders have the lowest recidivism rate of all other ex-felons, but that doesn't stop politicians from fear-mongering now does it?
Bondi would appoint two sheriffs, two police chiefs and one state attorney to the panel, formally known as the Sexual Predator and Sexual Offender Absconder Strike Force. It would have a $101,000 appropriation to start its four-year work.
The task force would coordinate efforts of city, county and state law enforcement agencies to locate absconding sex offenders, who are required to register with local police when they get out of prison. The state would work up lists of known absconders and maintain them with all police agencies. - You already list absconders on the online sex offender hit-list, so why do you need another list?
The laws that are creating homeless camps like this are by politicians who do not have the balls to obey their oath of office to defend the Constitution and the rights of others. I'm sure Ron Book, or the "Homeless Trust", will step in, shut the camp down, and it will just move somewhere else, just like it's been done for years. Warren Jones has no clue about how registrants are treated. The homeless shelters won't take them in because they are also scared of the negative publicity. The man interviewed at the end has no clue how hard it is for registrants to "move on."
Video Description: We showed you this place that some call "Camp Convict," where former prison inmates are staying in tents. They say they are limited to where they can live because of the types of crimes they committed. We talked to a city councilman who's concerned about the camp.
DAYTONA BEACH - Keeping children and neighborhoods safe will be the topic of a press conference on Wednesday at a playground built to bar sex offenders from the Bayberry Lakes neighborhood.
Lauren Book, a survivor of child sexual abuse at the hands of her nanny, is stopping at the playground from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Wednesday as part of her fifth annual “Walk In My Shoes,” a 1,500-mile trek to raise awareness about child sexual abuse, promote laws to protect children and help survivors heal, said Claire Vansusteren, communications director for Lauren’s Kids.
“They created this park specially to keep sexual predators out of their neighborhood,” Vansusteren said. “That’s why we wanted to walk through that particular neighborhood to raise awareness and pay tribute to what they have done.”
The playground in Bayberry Lakes combines with a state law prohibiting sex offenders whose victims were younger than 16 from living within 1,000 feet of a school, child care facility, park or playground, and a city ordinance that bars them from 2,500 feet from such a facility.
The playground is on Cinderberry Lane between Thornberry Branch Lane and Bayberry Lakes Boulevard.
Book will be joined by Assistant State Attorney J. Ryan Will, who came up with the idea for the playground.
TALLAHASSEE (AP) - Rick Scott signed four bills Tuesday that will keep the most violent sexual offenders locked up longer and close loopholes in a law that allows the state to send predators to a high-security treatment center even after they've finished their prison sentences.
The bills were a priority for Democrats and Republicans in both chambers and were largely inspired by the death of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle, whose photo was held behind Scott as he signed the bills. Authorities said Perrywinkle was abducted and killed by a repeat sexual offender less than a month after he finished a jail sentence in a case where he targeted another young girl. - Yeah that is how you exploit a child for your own gain.
"As a father of two girls and the grandfather of three little boys, I think about how the legislation I'm signing today will affect Florida's families. It will make Florida safer," Scott said. "I want Florida to be the best state in the nation for raising a family and this legislation will help make this a reality." - Most sexual crimes are committed by someone not on the registry and by someone the victim knows. This won't prevent another similar crime, it's just a placebo to make everybody feel safe and put another dead white female child's name on a bill to tug at your heart so they can get brownie points for looking "tough!"
The wide-ranging package creates a mandatory 50-year-sentence for people who rape children under 12, the developmentally disabled and senior citizens. That doubles the current mandatory sentence for the most violent sexual offenders. It also makes changes to the Jimmy Ryce Act, which allows the psychiatric review of sexually violent offenders after they finish their prison sentences. Those considered too dangerous are then committed to a high-security treatment center. - Treatment facility or a prison in disguise?
Lawmakers began looking at the Jimmy Ryce Act after Cherish's death and a South Florida Sun Sentinel series that followed. The newspaper researched offenders who were reviewed for civil commitment but ended up being set free at some stage in the process. They found 594 offenders who committed new crimes, some the day they were released, including 14 killings. The released prisoners also were later caught molesting 460 children and raping 121 women, the newspaper found.
"Florida will not be a catch-and-release state as it relates to violent sexual predators," said Rep. Matt Gaetz (DUI Offender), R-Shalimar, to loud applause.
Cherish was abducted from a Jacksonville Wal-Mart, raped and strangled. Her body was found the next day.
_____ is charged with murder in her killing. _____ had been reviewed twice before for civil commitment and allowed to remain free. He was released from jail the month before the killing but wasn't eligible for another review. Only offenders serving prison terms can be considered for commitment and _____ was in jail on misdemeanor charges after a plea deal in a case where he made obscene phone calls to a 10-year-old girl and impersonated a Florida Department of Children and Families child protective investigator to try to get access to her. - Yeah he was reviewed twice and apparently they didn't think he was a threat. So what is different now? Are you just going to assume all are dangerous now and put them all in civil (prison) commitment?
The new laws, that state lawmakers said are some of the toughest in the country, will allow referral for civil commitment review regardless if the offender is serving a jail or prison sentence. It also requires that investigators, prosecutors and victim advocates be involved in the review process. - What about sex offender experts? You are stacking the deck!
Sexual predators and offenders will also have to provide law enforcement agencies with any Internet usernames they use, as well as information about their passports, immigration status, professional licenses and all vehicles registered at their address, including those of friends and relatives, when they register as sex offenders.
The statute of limitations will be eliminated for molesting children younger than 16. Right now, molesters can't be prosecuted if the crimes are reported more than three years later.
The most sexually dangerous offenders will also have to serve their entire sentences and not be allowed a shorter sentence for good behavior.
Sexual abuse survivor Lauren Book took a break from a 1,500-mile sexual abuse awareness walk across Florida to attend the ceremony. Book has advocated for laws to increase penalties for sexual offenders, help victims and prevent abuse for 13 years, the first as a 17-year-old still recovering from years of being raped by her nanny.
But she said she's never seen a year where the Legislature has acted so quickly to address problems with sexual predators, a subject she said lawmakers used to have a hard time talking about.
"When we first started talking about these things it was like, 'Shhhh,'" Book said, holding a finger to her lips. "We're here today talking about these issues and people are looking at them, and that's how we shine into the darkness and prevent and protect those kids from having to go through went I went through or what any of the survivors I've met along the way have had to go through."
You do not need a law for this. If they have sex with someone who is underage, you have a law for that, if it's consensual, then the school board should deal with it! And what about politicians who have sex with interns (Mark Foley, Bill Clinton, etc)? Are you going to toughen the penalties for that as well? Politicians think they can just make a law and everything will go away, or they do it to help themselves look "tough" on crime while actually doing nothing.
04/01/2014
ORLANDO - Channel 9 has covered many cases of local teachers accused of having sex with students. Now lawmakers in Tallahassee hope to cut down on the behavior by increasing the punishment teachers face.
If the punishments are increased, it would not affect teachers in central Florida who already have pending cases, Channel 9's Kathi Belich learned.
Rep. Jake Raburn said high school student in Hillsborough County asked him to propose tougher penalties because the problem was growing in their area.
_____ was a teacher at Eustis High School when she was accused of having a sexual relationship with not one but two students there.
_____ was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, but she was released after serving a year and eight months. She also had to register as a sex offender.
A bill sponsored by Raburn would make sexual crimes involving educators and students more serious, with the maximum penalties increased. - Why only stop at teachers? What about politicians, police, day care workers, etc?
Parents of students at Eustis High School told Channel 9 they support the idea.
Last year, two local teachers were accused of having sexual relationships with students.
Jones High School teacher _____ faces 20 charges and former Lyman math teacher _____ is accused of having sex with two students.
House Bill 485 has passed through all the House committees and one Senate committee.
Raburn's office said there seems to be a lot of support but a vote has not been scheduled yet.
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