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Adults' overstepping their bounds is happening more frequently. It has become a weekly topic on the news and Florida needs to put an end to it. Adults are supposed to be role models, someone for kids to look up to.
Kimberly Brabson III, once a coach at Tampa Prep, was dismissed from the school for sexual misconduct in January 2007. Later, police found a hidden video camera in his office. He had been asking female students to try on bathing suites and asked for them to disrobe.
Although he still faces misdemeanor charges, on Thursday, November 15, 2007 Brabson was dismissed of 19 felony charges. According to the St. Petersburg Times, "Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett said the video images of girls undressing did not depict sexual conduct." And, defense attorney, Eddie Suarez said, asking girls to remove their undergarments when trying on the bathing suites "did not amount to choreography or 'anything other than everyday pictures of female juveniles dressing and undressing."
Lets recap, he asked underage girls to undress, try on bathing suites, and he had a hidden video camera. And this is not considered sexual conduct? No, he did not sleep with the girls, but he did betray them. They did not know that a camera was set up in the room they were told to undress in. Therefore, he did not have consent to videotape these girls. The victims are traumatized by their coach who they trusted and looked up to.
This type of behavior needs to stop. Brabson should be labeled a sex offender. If not, he can still work with children. People, like him, are addicted to child pornography and most likely will continue this conduct.
Florida and all other states need to send people like this to jail and counseling. If the punishments are not harsh enough, they will continue to act inappropriately. Also, children do not deserve this type of treatment. The state should stand up and defend the innocent. Children and their parents should not have to live in fear.
Is Florida Statute Too Forgiving?
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- Public Discussion (6)
This is a serious issue that needs to be reconsidered. The Florida statute is way too forgiving. There are many cases like this one and it needs to end. The victims at Tampa Prep are so hurt by their former coach and have been attending counseling sessions on a weekly basis. Knowing that this man is getting off easy is even more troubling. This statute needs to be rewritten so people like Brabson do not get off the hook.
- 2 votes
#1 - Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:22 PM ESTI agree that the statue seems to be too forgiving. This is ridiculous. Why are the schools in the Tampa area so bad? There is something obviously wrong in the school system down here in Florida. If children have no outstanding role models than the schools down here will never get any better. These offenders should not have been let off the hook. I would be horrified for this to happen to another a child by the same offender know we could have stopped it before it happened.
- 2 votes
#2 - Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:11 PM ESTHow absolutely ridiculous! What about this coach's situation in relation to his students is normal? NOTHING! For the system to approve such actions is completely dangerous, wrong, and outrageous! Even if there is no solid proof that this coach was sexually explicit with these girls, there is more than enough notions of an inappropriate environment for these young girls. I am absolutely outraged and can say no more!
- 2 votes
#3 - Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:19 PM ESTThis is a case I have been following and I was so upset when I heard it on the news that he was about to get away with what he did. He is a sexual offender and shoud be treated as such. Are they going to wait until he has done physical and emotional harm to a child before they put him away? I can just hearing them singing the "if we had known" medly after the fact.
- 2 votes
#4 - Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:31 PM ESTI don't know the whole story here, but schools and most professional institutions, have this bad habit of letting people resign instead of @!$%#-canning them and damaging their careers. It's really not cool, and certainly no working class person gets treated so nicely. The stuff doesn't even become public unless it goes over the edge, like a guy taking pictures of naked adolescents. In order to even know the reasons you have to have some type of in there, or know someone involved. It has reminded me of the Catholic Church for some time now and it's prevalent in schools, bureaucracies and businesses, they're really not much different.
- 2 votes
#5 - Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:53 PM ESTMy dad had a solution for creepy weirdos that has sadly gotten lost as we became more civilized; take them out to a tree stump and staple their testicles to it. Build a fire around them and hand them a pocketknife. So they get to choose their punishment.
Now we are told "it's not about sex" and they attach this whole raft of other things to it, which may be why there is a lot more of it.
P.S. Consider a paragraph break here and there.
P.P.S. And I have never seen an article with so many comments where not a single one got voted up by anyone. Don't be lazy, people. I upticked them all just this once, to show you the button works.
- 2 votes
#6 - Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:26 AM ESTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
