Posted on 05/11/2005 1:23:26 PM PDT by zaxxon
All deserve second chance, presumption of innocence
Gregory Kane
May 11, 2005
CHARLES CARROLL was convicted of second-degree murder in 1995 and paroled in 2001. Four years later, after being hired to teach at Community Initiatives Academy in East Baltimore, he has been charged with rape and sexual abuse.
The predictable shouts of protest have been heard. The questions have been raised. The most prominent one is: How can a school, even a private one, trust a convicted murderer to be around children?
In 1996 Anthony Tyrone Mills fatally stabbed my brother, Tyrone Kane. In 1997 Mills was sentenced to 30 years for second-degree murder. If he were released today, working with children is exactly what I'd advise him to do.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
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Another good reason for keeping these guys in jail for life, or better yet, executing them. Once they are out, you can't control them. There is always someone willing to give them a second chance to commit murder, often of some unsuspecting child.
zaxxon
Since May 8, 2005
Hi n00b.
I may not be the death penalty enthusiast I used to be, I now have qualms about it, I still got to say "this guy needs a killin'
Defence of recividist sex offenders and murderers, what next?
use bugmenot.com
I think it takes a very high order of arrogance and negligence to rationalize hiring a convicted murderer to supervise children. I don't care if he's given his soul over to Christ, children deserve not to be the ones whose well-being is on the line when an administrator decides to give someone "a chance".
If there's "a chance" that the person will redeem themselves, that implicitly admits that there's also "a chance" that they won't.
I have no qualms whatsoever about the DP, except that maybe it's not used enough. No second chances for murderers.
My thoughts too.
In a court of law, yes. In the court of public opinion, no.
I presume him to be guilty. But I do not know all of the facts. But neither does this man and he presumes a convicted killer is innocent of further violence. Not statistically likely.
Vilkommen!
False premise.
No need to read further.
Agreed.
If we made the judges somehow responsible. I am not saying making them directly responsible. They have to keep their objectivity.
But, by forcing them to realize that their decision cost another life and people are suffering.
Wonder if these ivory tower types ever think about this.
My opinion is that Kane is a fool and an idiot. And only a complete 'tard would see any merit in setting a convicted murderer among school children.
I am sure that Charles Carrol was the darling of the left wherever he was teaching and has supporters even now. Geez! When are people going to learn that there are simply some animals who will always be a danger to the rest of us. Being an avid reader I came across a sci-fi novel called The Truth Machine, by James Halperin. In it a law is passed called Swift & Sure. Convicted of a violent crime, even if it does not result in a death, and you are limited to one appeal and ruled on that within 65 days. Execution (lethal injection) if losing your appeal is carried out immediatly. The logic is that after calculating the number of people effected by the crime, including the victim, victims family, and even the criminals family it iwas concluded the harm done to people in any crime is vast. Sounds like a workable law to me.
Here is the LARGER SCANDAL (bleeding-heart-criminal-coddling-liberals, again) of this case!
School aided ex-con group
By Andrew A. Green
Sun Staff
Originally published May 8, 2005
The Baltimore private school where a convicted murderer had taught until being charged with sexually abusing three students was part of a city task force working to improve employment opportunities for ex-offenders.
The principal of the Community Initiatives Academy in East Baltimore, Christina V. Philips Holtsclaw, said she believes ex-convicts, especially young African-American men like the fired teacher, need second chances. But she said she had not hired any other employees with criminal records at the school and would not do so again.
"I would not take that chance again with the school," she said yesterday. "Other places, perhaps yes. But not at the school."
Child-welfare advocates and legislators said yesterday that the incident is evidence that the state may need to more closely regulate hiring at private schools.
There, administrators are required to conduct background checks on job applicants but, unlike in public schools, are not prevented from hiring people who have been convicted of violent crimes.
The teacher, Charles Carroll, 28, was arrested Thursday night and charged with raping a 13-year-old girl and sexually abusing two other girls, 13 and 17, according to court documents.
In 1995, he was convicted of second-degree murder after fatally shooting a man in 1994 during a fight.
Holtsclaw confirmed that the school participated in the Baltimore City Ex-offender Task Force, a group organized by the mayor's office to help provide services for ex-convicts who seek employment and re-entry into the community. Members included philanthropic foundations, community-based non-profits, churches and government agencies, but the Community Initiatives Academy was the only school that participated, according to a list on the task force Web site.
Holtsclaw, a former Baltimore County special education teacher, founded the academy in 1981 as an offshoot of the East Baltimore Deliverance Church, of which she is a leader.
She said Carroll did not come to her through her involvement with the task force but that he had been working with children in the community as a tutor before applying at the school, which has 100 students and serves children from day care through 12th grade.
Holtsclaw said Carroll was forthcoming about his conviction, which she confirmed through a criminal background check. She said she believed he acted in self-defense and was not a risk to children at the school because he had turned his life around in the years since the conviction. She did not tell parents about his past.
"This was second-degree murder. ... It wasn't something where he was a murderer out there killing people," Holtsclaw said. "As a black man, I gave him a second chance. I'm not glad for what happened. I'm sorry. But at the same time, I don't think my judgment was wrong at the time."
Ellen Mugmon, a longtime children's advocate in Maryland, said any judgment that puts children, a vulnerable population, at risk is inherently wrong.
"Their priority is to serve to educate children and protect them, or should be," Mugmon said yesterday. "It seems that their priority has been to protect the school, the administration and this particular individual."
Glendora C. Hughes, chairwoman of the board of Maryland New Directions, a Baltimore nonprofit group that runs an ex-offender employment program for women, said it's laudable that the school would try to help an ex-convict. But she said the way the school did it lacked common sense.
Thousands of ex-convicts attempt each year to re-enter the community after serving their sentences, and it's important that they be able to find jobs and support their families, Hughes said. However, a school has to be more careful than a business, she said.
"You're in charge and have the responsibility for people's children, and you at a minimum should give them notice of who's teaching their kids," Hughes said. "It's not just your risk."
Holtsclaw said she heard rumors of the assaults a week before she fired Carroll but did not report them to the authorities. She said she wanted to gather more information and believed reporting the accounts was unnecessary because the mother of one girl already had talked to the police.
Maryland is one of four states that do not have penalties for failure to report child abuse, Mugmon said.
"Nevertheless, parents can sue on the basis of failing to report child abuse, as well as negligent hiring, and the Maryland State Department of Education should at the very least consider revoking the school's certification," Mugmon said. "Authorities should also look at new measures to provide oversight of the hiring practices of those schools they regulate."
William Reinhard, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Education, said the state's role in regulating private schools is limited, but officials will investigate the matter.
"The first thing the state will do on Monday is review where to go with this because it's a very serious problem," Reinhard said. "We're going to look at what our options are."
Sen. Dolores G. Kelley, a Baltimore County Democrat, said she has begun researching state regulations for teachers and believes changes may be necessary.
Del. Susan W. Krebs, a Carroll County Republican, sponsored legislation this year requiring child care centers to share the results of the background checks they conduct on prospective employees with the state Child Care Administration. The bill passed unanimously and is awaiting the signature of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
She said there is no logical reason why the state, which prevents public schools from hiring ex-convicts, provides no check on private schools. Krebs said she plans to pursue the issue when the legislature reconvenes in January.
"Most schools and most day care centers are very responsible, but it only takes one," Krebs said. "It's something we should look into. ... I think everybody wins out by taking every precaution possible."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.school08may08,1,1588038.story?page=2&coll=bal-local-headlines
I agree. I think it is moronic to consider someone caught red handed as innocent until proven guilty. One is guilty as soon as one commits a crime, the government can not punish you until they prove in court that you did the crime. The public can consider one guilty based upon what ever the public desires. If someone going thru a bitter divorce and is charged with being a child molester, most people would reserve judgment, if someone is pulled out of a stolen car, the facts are pretty clear.
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