"OOPS!!"

This beautiful young lady is back in the news again, much to her chagrin. Debra LaFave, the infamous Florida teacher who had sexual liaisons two years ago with one of her fourteen year old, middle-school male students, was re-arrested yesterday for allegedly violating her conditions for parole. The charges? "Conducting intimate conversations with a 17-year-old (female) co-worker at her place of employment (a fast food restaurant)," which is in violation of her previous sentence that stipulates that Ms. Lafave is not to have any unsupervised contact with a "child under the age of 18."

The violation/arrest report further stipulated that "Lefave and the Ruskin (FL.) teen discussed non-related work issues such as family problems, friends, high school, personal life, boyfriend issues and sexual issues in both private one-on-one conversations...and group settings." The lawyer who represented Ms. Lafave in her initial court appearances classified the conversations as amounting to nothing more than "girl-talk...among fellow employees." Her employer essentially echoed the same sentiment, stating he was shocked to learn of Lefave's arrest, further noting that he personally never heard her talk about personal matters...and "never noticed anything unusual about her relationship with the 17-year-old girl."

Why bother to devote any "bog" time to this subject? It smells like a witch hunt to me. Admittedly what Ms. Lafave pled guilty to was unquestionably despicable, and to receive a sentence of 3-years house arrest was a gift. A male who had committed the same crime would have found himself behind bars for far longer than a mere three year. Double standard? Unquestionably. Still, the sentence was agreed to by all aggrieved parties and, from all accounts, Ms. Lefave has been conducting her personal life in strict accordance to her terms of probation. Again, this latest incident smacks me as having a deliberate vindictive motivation. If indeed Ms. Lafave is found in violation of her parole conditions, she could face up to 15 years of prison time for each of her two previously adjudicated felony counts.

The comment sections of the local newspapers are already filled with statements of condemnation, a veritable lynch mob of vindictiveness. With approximately 2.5 million souls now populating our nation's prisons, which works out to 1 individual out of every 142 citizens, one would safely assume that rehabilitation is having considerable difficulty gaining traction. I am hands down in favor of incarcerating any and all individuals who have committed crimes that inflict purposeful harm of any nature, especially for those heartless and hardened souls who do not possess even a glimmer of remorse for their actions. But to impose vindictively imprisonment for an individual, such as Ms. Lafave, when she is outwardly remorseful for her previous transgressions and is dutifully and faithfully trying to make a life for herself beyond her past mistakes, in my opinion is a miscarriage of justice at best, and at the very least a willful abdication of common sense and compassionate encouragement.

We have all been exposed to admonishment that "we are to learn from our mistakes." For those of us who have and for those who are still making that personal journey should not be arbitrarily further punished for attempting to faithfully do so themselves. Just my opinion...