Klarinet Archive - Posting 001021.txt from 1999/10

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] re: playing the Clarinet from behind the student
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 17:37:58 -0500

I can't resist. Tony stated:

<<<The lawyers exacerbate that, because, due to their efforts, the class
'damaging' is smaller than the class 'plausibly indictable as damaging'.

So you can't claim innocence, lawyers.>>>

Now someone can certainly rev up the old diatribe about "ambulance chasers"
and the rest. There may indeed be the odd civil case brought against a
school district by some nut job with a wacko client. The vast majority of
these cases, however, are *criminal* -- brought not by private attorneys,
but public prosecutors.

Teachers rape and molest students. That's a problem. It happens -- way too
often. Until about 10 years ago, such matters were handled "discreetly,"
which is a nice way of saying that the rapist got away with it, and
therefore had multiple opportunities to commit additional crimes. And often
did.

Within the last ten years or so, the rapists have been having a harder time.
Prosecutors no longer pooh-pooh allegations of child rape and molestation by
teachers or anyone else. To the extent that all prosecutors are lawyers,
and that they are nailing child molesters to the wall, you can indeed blame
the lawyers. I applaud their efforts.

Prosecutors take these allegations seriously, each and every one. That's
their job. The problem that the "innocent" teacher has is one of evidence.
Unfortunately, in the vast majority of these cases, the only evidence is the
word of the teacher/molester against the word of the student/victim. It's
much easier for a student with a grudge to bear false witness, because the
evidence is exactly the same in the case where molestation occurred as when
it did not.

Since the evidence in the false case is exactly the same as the evidence in
the typical meritorious one, this puts the prosecutor in a pickle. Their
crystal ball isn't any clearer than yours or mine; absent obvious
credibility problems with the accuser, they are required to take the same
action for all cases. Therein lies the problem -- the "evil lawyers" can't
tell the truth of a child's accusations any better than you or me.

I know more than a few prosecutors, having been to school and worked with
them. I've yet to meet one that got their jollies by putting innocent
people in jail. Nevertheless, teachers are right to be paranoid about this,
because of the possibility that what they do may be misinterpreted by the
student -- or outright used as a falsehood -- to destroy their career.

kjf

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