Forestalling gbro's Scathing Comment

I just KNOW he's down there on the Bayou, swatting slow skeeters, and mumbling something along the lines of, "enough already with the 'Great Cobbler Controversy of 2006', give me an issue I can REALLY sink my teeth into!!!"

See, I've known him since 196number withheld for the sake of our vanities. We were mere babes in the same hospital nursery, Right? That's our story, and HE better stick to it, if he knows what's good for him. SO I can predict what he will say, sometimes. Other times he comes out of left field, and shocks the Bejabbers out of me.

Kinda like the AP story I read in the paper today. Seems a student, Nathan Manuel Mendoza by name, held a scissor blade to the throat of a teacher and threatened her with sexual assault. Luckily, she was able to break free. At that point he ran out of the CLASSROOM!!! [caps intentional] This happened after school on Monday, October 23. Now what may or may not surprise you is that young Mr. Mendoza is a Registered Sex Offender.

This story is just so wrong on so many different levels, I hardly know where to begin. But I'll try. Let me start with the text of the letter I sent to the Principal of the High School.

Dear Mr. Villafane,

I read an Associated Press report about a student in your high school attempting a sexual assault upon a teacher. I was shocked and appalled!
As a former Parole Officer here in Texas, I am well aware that a lack of education is a factor in the background of many property criminals. However, this particular student is already a registered sex offender. This tells me several things about his criminal history. One: he has been convicted as an ADULT. Two: he has been convicted of a FELONY, not misdemeanor, grade sex crime. Three:and I admit this is a supposition, but it is an education "guess", this was not his first encounter with the criminal justice system.

I am admittedly unfamiliar with the programs of the Austin ISD. That is why I am writing this letter. In the ?????, where I live and where my children were educated, a student with a Felony conviction of this nature would not be allowed to roam the halls of one of our mainstream high schools. He or she would be attending the school for offenders and disciplinarily difficult students. That student would receive an education under very strict behavioral guidlines. Those guidelines are in place to insure the safety of the other students and the faculty and staff of that campus.
Does Austin have such a program? If so, why was this obviously dangerous student not in that program? How is the Teacher? Is she suffering any PTSD symptoms? And if that is too intrusive a question, please ignore it. Please extend my heartfelt wishes to her that she recovers speedily from the trauma of this violent episode.

I look forward to your reply,

I can't wait to see what this guy has to say about this situation. And I truly hope this teacher gets some counseling. She showed cool thinking under pressure by getting away from him, and I laud her refusal to be a victim.

Many of my friends have long called Austin "Moscow on the Colorado" and I would just let them say that because it's a free country and everyone is entitled to speak their mind, no matter how misguided they may be. I just thought it was a little too liberal for their taste, and kept my own counsel.

But then either I started changing, or Austin as an entity started gettin' too liberal even for my tolerance level. If the citizenry of Austin and the Parents who send their children to its schools are willing to tolerate convicted Sex Offenders roaming the halls of the high schools looking for their next victims, the City has become the Cesspool of Political Correctness my friends have accused it of being for the last 15 or so years. My bad for doubting your assessment.

Because I am telling you, Sex Offenders don't change. Not the Rapists, not the flashers, not the frottagers [look it up, it'll give you the willies the next time you're in a crowded elevator], and most especially NOT Ever, Never, the PEDOPHILES. Listen to me well, I will repeat my self, THEY DON'T CHANGE. They cannot be rehabilitated. They will always be sittin' on the Group W bench. And I don't mean that as a joke.

I don't care what the Therapists say. I don't care what the researchers say. They have a vested interest in pronouncing this therapy or that medicine as being a "breakthrough approach". Well, I worked with those Men and Women in a professional capacity. And I've read the studies. I've taken statistics and I've taken research classes as an undergrad and a Gradual student. I know exactly how easy it is to design a study to produce the results you want to see. I know how easy it is to manipulate the numbers.

And I am here to tell you: Talk Therapy doesn't work. Confrontation therapy doesn't work. Chemical castration doesn't work, hell actual castration doesn't work. Aversion therapy doesn't work. All those things don't work because they depend on the cooperation of the offender. And for every treatment approach developed there are at least three ways around, over and under them. I won't go into what they are b/c there might be a troll lurking and he might pick up a pointer or two he hadn't heard in lock-up. I doubt it. But who wants to risk that?

You want to know what works? I'll tell you, but some of you may not like it. Most of you will groove on it, I bet. A Lobotomy. Or total and complete lifetime quarantine from the time of conviction until death. That's it. That's what works.

Try passin THAT through the Legislature!