People who need more help than me...

Ok, let's just say you are a 23-year-old reading teacher. You might just happen to have some students who are, say, 14 years old. You graduated from University of South Florida the same year I graduated from TCU. You have been married less than a year. You are attractive and seem to have your life pretty well put together. So why, why, why, why, why, of all the fantasies you could possibly have, is it a fucking turn-on for you to sleep with a student? Seriously, Debra Beasley LaFave, why is that even an option for you? According to the student, Mrs. LaFave said that she was attracted to him "because it's not allowed". Mrs. LaFave's husband accompanied her to court. I'm not sure if I feel sorry for him or just want to call him an idiot. Cheating 11 months into your marriage is one thing, but with a 14-year-old? Come on! She should've been alone in that courtroom. Seriously, Mr. LaFave, I'm single and I promise I'm not nearly as fucked up as your first choice for a wife! At her first appearance, her lawyer described her as "an outstanding member of the community". Yes, this is your first offense Mrs. LaFave. But, you've taken your outstanding-ness (yes, it's a word now) and used it to take advantage of a student in the worst way possible. Maybe he was never your student, but you are responsible for your actions with every child that enters the doors of your school. Outstanding...give me a fucking break. Now, it's people like me who are left to fix what you've done to him. I see this shit every week...kids who have been taken advantage of by people who are supposed to care about their well-being. They are used and thrown away, not knowing why it happened, what they could've done to stop it, or what the hell they are supposed to do now. Imagine his next girlfriend. Will he try to pressure her into sex just because he got laid by the hot teacher? Will she give in because surely he must be worth it if a teacher would sacrifice her job, her marriage, her life as it once was for him? Could this result in another teenage pregnancy? The big debate these days is supposed to be over whether teachers are supposed to be teaching abstinence or sex education. Excuse me if I don't remember a how-to personal tutorial being part of the debate. I'm shocked. You've just got to be kidding me with this shit. To top it off, there was an even more disturbing story in the news today. This one came out of Phoenix where an ice cream truck driver was arrested after he raped and impregnated a 9-year-old girl. NINE YEARS OLD!! Apparently this guy befriended the girl (red flag) and her mom trusted him enough to let the girl ride along in the truck. PEOPLE be more careful with your children!!! If some freak will drive an ice cream truck just to find his next victim, who the hell can we trust anymore? I can't imagine having a pregnant little girl in my support group on Tuesday night. Seriously, what is she going to do? She can't have a baby at 9 years old. Her poor little body couldn't possibly take that. So what now? An abortion? That could start an entirely new debate that could go on in my head for hours. I'm tired. This news exhausts me. Please, God, let there be better news tomorrow. Our children should never have to endure such pain. I pray for them and I pray for the souls of people who would cause them such pain...for, surely, they need more help than I do.
"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see." -Neil Postman, 1982