Posted on 10/23/2007 2:31:25 PM PDT by uxbridge
The report of a Weare father attacking his daughter's boyfriend on school grounds after discovering the teenagers had sex earlier that day has evoked passion in readers.
The boy is 17 and the girl is 15.
Police say the attack happened Sept. 10 as John Stark High School in Henniker was letting out for the day and was witnessed many students.
The girl's father was charged with simple assault, a class B felony.
A Weare police detective was interviewing the 17-year-old from Henniker yesterday, said Deputy Chief Bill Quigley, but no charges have been filed against him.
Because the girl is not old enough to consent under state law, police are investigating the father's allegation as a sexual assault.
The story drew comments from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to Baghdad, Iraq.
Many people defended the irate father's actions, with one reader suggesting a defense fund be set up and several others saying they would contribute.
"If more parents acted like this father maybe we wouldn't have so many teen pregnancies," wrote Dorie Smith of New Boston. "It's refreshing to see a father stand up for his child and not just say, 'Oh, that's what teenagers do.'"
Others said the man should be prosecuted for violently taking the law into his own hands.
"I am also shocked at the number of people defending the father's actions," wrote Tina Thompson of Sutton. "The father's actions are vigilantism at its worst, and I hope the authorities throw the book at him."
Michelle Howard, of Henniker, said an adult should be expected to have more control over his fist than a teenager has over his hormones.
"As a mother of three boys," she wrote, "I will make sure they get every kiss and so on in writing, to protect us from some testosterone-raging father."
The boy, who police say was dating the girl, was bruised in the attack and required two stitches in his face.
Police said the father discovered the teens had sex during school hours but not on school property.
The New Hampshire Union Leader does not identify sexual assault victims. For that reason, the newspaper is not identifying the father.
Chris, of Nashua, said there's little danger of stigma being attached to anyone involved in the incident.
"The 15-year old girl is not a victim here," he said. "She is a teen engaging in sexual activity - just like 90 percent of her peers. Therefore the father does not deserve to have his name hidden from the public. Publish his name in the paper just like any other adult who is charged with assault."
Meg, of Derry, agreed, saying many teen girls are sexually active.
"People see the word 'rape' in statutory rape and think that the boy forced himself on her like a beast," she wrote. "Let me tell you, that is hardly the case in many instances. ... Assault is assault, Pops. Jail is where you go, and you learn YOUR lesson just like your daughter and her boyfriend learn theirs."
Sue, of Pembroke, said lessons could have been learned, but weren't.
"This would have been the perfect opportunity (for the man) to show his daughter how adults behave themselves when faced with a difficult situation," she wrote. "When she is an adult she will look back and realize the infantile manner in which her father behaved himself."
Tonya Ferrara, of Manchester, said vigilante justice - family style - might play a useful role in crime fighting.
"Maybe if this happened to sex offenders the first time they were caught we wouldn't have repeat offenders," she wrote.
Using violence to solve problems is the real threat to society, wrote Christina, of Henniker.
"Let the father of the boy beat up the father of the girl, and then the older brother beat up the older brother," she wrote. "Why stop there? Why not have his friends beat up her friends? It's views like this that start world wars."
Mark Emerson, of Lancaster, said the man's chief mistake was getting caught.
"Put in that same situation," he said, "I probably would have knocked his lights out also, just without all the witnesses."
Tom Linehan, of Salem, defended the father's actions without qualification.
"There ought to be a fund to help pay the legal fees for people like this father who not only defend their kids but also more broadly defend the rest of us from miscreants," wrote Linehan. "There is no defense for rape."
(snivelly liberal voice mode on)
But dontcha know everybody does it? Whatsamatter with you?
Lock the brute up for defending his family’s honor.
Big city, big school, "target rich environment".
IIRC, no one in my crowd got sexually active til age 17, though.
What a load of crap. Are you one of those feminists that hates males? Join the real world!!! When it comes to sexual intercourse women these days are as agressive as men.
And now, for something completely different.
Everybody did what should be expected under the circumstances.
We have six sons and let me just say, girls these days are extremely agressive at an early age, making a lot of the first moves. Hard to imagine a teenage boy saying “no, we just cant”. Even tho trained otherwise.
Dad, likewise, was rightly offended and acted appropriately. No guns, knives or baseball bats involved. Just man to man justice.
The uproar about all this is what has created a society of hall monitors who call city hall rather than talk to their neighbors when issues arise. From the early days in school now, what used to get settled in the schoolyard after school, is now “reported” to a teacher. We learn early to resolve our “differences” by bringing them to a higher authority and, over time, become incapable of the type of rugged independence that built this country.
Boy and girl do what boys and girls have done forever. Dad did what Dad’s have done, forever. Everyone else should butt out.
But, then, I’m old fashioned. The hall monitors have grown up and taken over, not a good thing.
>>What if the 17 year old boy was your son?<<
I’d be looking at him saying, “I taught you better. Better get some ice on that.”
I’d send a Thank You note ... to the Dad. if the boy gets charged with statutory rape, would you as a parent pay for his legal defense? hmmm. WOuld you rather have that bill or a doctors bill?
Lawyers and courts dont raise children, parents do. This is a far more just end of the matter than nattering at the Dad and sending the kid to jail for 3 years.
superglue??!! good one altho still a bit less painful than the welding rig one of my girlfriends dad threatened to plug her up with. my fate was to be even more painful.
I’ve said it before, but...
My daughter brought a guy home. He was in the military and seemed upstanding. Later on it came out, he was only after one thing. He had a problem in beating his wife, who he was still married to, and some other issues that his fellow soldiers thought were real bad, so bad in fact that he was forced out.
Well, he always treated my daughter very politely. Never so much as talked bad to her. I think it was because when he met me, I was shooting a compound bow into a target, and my chainsaw with a lot of cut wood was next to me. I had a lot of sawdust on me at the time from cutting the wood.
Oh, in my pocket, a H&K 45 CAL. or was it the stainless SIG (45 CAL), or was it the CZ-75 Military model, could of been one of the Glocks, or it might have been the 357 stainless Ruger.
I only had a ten to fifteen minute warning that my daughter was coming home with him. So... I had to move fast to create a memorable scene.
Anyway, I never had to threaten or imply that he would be hurt. He only heard me say how much I loved my daughter, for him to take care of her, and for both of them to have a good time.
PS, I heard later that he was afraid of me, can you imagine?
I just can’t see why so many think this boy is worthy of a prison sentence and labelling as a sex offender. I bet 20 percent of my high school friends had sex with someone younger than 16. Now days it is probably much higher. How could we put all those people in jail if we wanted to?
I think this boy was very deserving of the beating he got from the girls father. Hopefully it will make him think twice next time. I also hope his parents impose some serious restrictions on him. Same for the girls parents. The rest of this sex offender prison stuff is just really jacked. Some of these people have some serious problems.
He'll probably just move on to a girl with no father around. There's plenty of them.
Or what? You would go running off to court to sue him. Put a father in jail for defending his daughter? Aren't you just something. In the not too distant future this fed up country is going to put a bounty on lawyers. I look forward to the day.
arderkrag is probably just another cowardly cut and run Paul fanatic who hangs around here looking other tin hat libertarians who agree that there should be no laws against sex between adults and children. Cut and run does not believe in such laws. Apparently neither does arderkrag.
” My major interests include D&D, Conan, Fantasy Literature in general, and History. “
He may yet grow up.
/no sarc tag needed this time
Maybe the father and mother of the girl should be beaten for child neglect.
Why did they let their 15 year old date a 17 year old.
Why was she even dating?
"...a grown man does not have the right to attack my under age child, regardless of his reasons".
She was not “dating”. She was not allowed to date. She was supposed to be in school at the time this occurred. You might want to read the whole story. I think there’s plenty of links to the whole sordid tale as it unfolded.
The boy is 17 and the girl is 15.
My take is the girls was seduced and exploited by the older boy. With the hormones at that age she was not fully responsible for the statutory rape sex that took place. At her young age you are sort of in awe of a boy a mere 2 years older you like and who pays attention to you. I assume the boy is prosecutable under New Hampshire laws on statutory rape
Statutory rape laws exist for a reason and have little to do with a 15 year old girl having consensual sex
I'm with the father on this one
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.