A bit harsh IMO (sex offenders, lawyers, school)

[njkate]

Just shaking my head here....what does everyone else think?

2 N.J. teens labeled sex offenders for life after 'horseplay' incident | NJ.com

[Kracer]

Sick, real sick little twit, but sex offender, I don't think so.

The social scientists suckling from the breast of government grants find creative ways to earn a PhD. Coupled with politicians and lawyers who created the term 'slippery slope' and maintain its teflon surface, they force us in a direction we don't want to go.

When Mr L sent two football players during class to roust out a pain in the butt kid, while in class, for a teacher he took a liking to, it was of no cause for concern, not a covert operation but an in your face 'assault'. The kid behaved and all was well.

Throwing a teacher over a lunch table got you 3 days off to go duck hunting. Extenuating circumstances.

Wow, have times changed.

Now everyone is in danger of lawsuits and criminal charges.

Laws create criminals using a barely perceptible threshold and the world wonders why so many are in US prisons.

[Goldendoodle1969]

This is ABSURD!!!! It will get overturned.

[todd72173]

Good for judge! Im glad to see they cracking down on this! I have no issue with the decision.
If you think it is OK for someone to pull their pants down and sit on your face, stay far from me and I will be calling the police too.

[NJGOAT]

It seems that every *insert victims name here* Law always come with unintended consequences. Unless there is a lot more to the story, those boys didn't do anything I would consider remotely close to being considered a sex crime, let alone needing to be on the offender registry for the rest of their lives. If this was the law back when I was in school I swear that half the sports teams both guy and girl would have been on the sex offender registry after freshmen initiation.

IMO, this is even worse than charging kids with cell phone pics of distributing child pornography and putting them on the offender list. At least in those cases most of the judges and prosecutors agree the law needs to be updated to deal with the times. This case seems like one were common sense just simply didn't factor in at all.

If the way Megan's Law was written forces this kind of sentencing and penalty in these cases, it needs to be suspended and revised to at least give the judge's the opportunity to have some discretion.

[zhelder]

Here's my question: would two girls doing the same thing have received the same sentence? I doubt it, law or no law.

These kids need some consequences, for sure: make them go to counseling, write apologies, make their parents slam them into a wall, etc. But this is ridiculous.

[lkb0714]

Knee jerk reaction laws that take the power away from juries and judges always result in these unintended consequences. The judges are not at fault here, the law is, and that is what happens when law makers pass laws that infringe upon the balance of power.

[NJBest]

I don't think I agree with sexual offender either.

But maybe something permanent on their highschool transcript so it only screws them up to the point of applying for college... and hopefully after they're mature enough to lead normal lives.

[tom1944]

There may be more to the story than we know. The prosecutor could have filed a lesser charge. There may be something in the background or past behavior which resulted in officials taking a hard line.

We can see if the Governor grants an amnesty.

[shorebaby]

These kids certainly committed a crime, but I don't think it is a sex crime.