FROM THE EDITOR — Thoughts on CHS employee child abuse sentencing

We all have a role in society.

In my case, reporters report, and editors edit. (Glad I cleared that up, right?)

Judges judge. And criminals … crime, when they don’t have things to do to support society.

What am I getting at? Current events. Everyone has a hand in shaping them. My role is defining that shape and giving the story a narrative. Not a spin, or a viewpoint … at least, not in these pages.

But, I am writing this on this page, and I am getting to the point.

Last week, a former Celebration High School employee and athletic coach learned the fate for crimes on which he was arrested. In April, he was arrested after a number of teenage girls — minors — reported to their parents that he had requested that they take sexually explicit photos of themselves in the bathroom and send them to him, either via email or to his phone. This was a condition of being able to go to their next class or to leave his office. Police reports also detail he told another to “bend over a table in his office while writing a pass for her to go back to class.” Another told police he took them off campus for lunch and made lewd comments about their body.

He was pulled from school and arrested. His 13 initial charges across two court cases included lewd and lascivious molestation, lewd and lascivious conduct, sexual performance by a child, lewd or lascivious touching of certain minors, offenses against students by authority figures and bribery.

He spent over two months in jail — until a number of the charges were dropped and his bond lowered.

Last week he brought a close to his cases, pleading no contest — different from “guilty” — to three charges: two of unlawful use of a communication device (a phone) and child abuse without bodily harm. His sentence did not include any more jail time — he got credit for what he spent locked up awaiting bail — but 10 years of probation, with a curfew and a number of directives on his lifestyle.

And that’s it. As the editor of this paper, a role in which I am an onlooker who provides the facts to readers, I reported the sentence levied, while considering that the courts may have possibly provided a lighter sentence than the charges warranted.

As the father of two children — including a high school freshman — I am adamant that the ruling was full of sh-enanigans.

I cannot hold back my opinion — one I know many of you share with me, based on reading email responses and social media posts.

I understand the will of the court provided a way for the case’s young victims not to have to stand trial and testify, scheduled to occur next week. And that the accused had no Osceola criminal record.

But…I mean, one of the charges he pled to was child abuse. Abuse, of a child. By an adult, entrusted with the care of them in school. Understanding it was a plea of “no contest” … why not then plea to the offenses by authority figures? Does plea-ing to child abuse not warrant a lengthier jail sentence, a time away from society?

But the tougher question to answer is: What message does this send to any other child who faces this abuse?

It takes strength of will and character to come forward and report these actions. In regard to the victims, this strength was met by justice-system weakness.