Excuse me—it was consensual—this is one of those laws that needs to be stricken from the register—it’s barbaric and the lady has paid her dues—what incredible bullshit to put her through this—she needs to move to civilzation.

First off wOw, I need to point out from your heading, you state in the story that she was 17 when the tryst happened, and say she is now 29. If this is accurate it would be over 10 years…just an FYI. This is a tough one because if “she” was a “he” and we knew of a 29 year old man that performed oral sex on a young teen girl when he was 17, would we be as understanding on the subject of him regaining all his legal rights? I don’t believe we would. In so many ways I am very old fashioned in how I view our country, sex, work, religion, you name it. It doesn’t jive with my open minded views as it relates to how I live. I don’t have the attitude “kids will be kids” as most people do. I do believe morals and values must be instilled in children by their parents and that children must listen to those rules. I listened to my father’s rules and morals he set for our family, and I don’t think my dad was the only man in America that was able to succeed in that aspect. It comes down to whether your kids respect you as an authority figure, or do they see you as a friend first? So teenagers having sex is not something I see as normal or understandable. A 17 year old having sex with someone under 16 is not something I see as not a big deal. But again, I am old fashioned on this subject. It comes down to the law, and if the law requires that she be labeled and viewed as a sex offender because of that conviction, then that should be her fate. We can’t and shouldn’t have one set of laws for females and another for males who do what she did. It’s a hard one to swallow and will undoubtedly affect her life now and in years to come. However it should be a wake up call to all those teens out there that don’t see a problem with having sex. You always run the risk of being convicted of a sex crime dependent upon your state and state laws. And contrary to FP post, there is no such thing as consensual sex when you are talking about a 17 year old and a child under the age of 16.

There are many laws and misconceptions concerning sex offenders that the public is not aware of. Yes, this was consensual teen sex. The Adam Walsh Act is sweeping young children into it’s net which paints everyone with the same broad brush. Ricky’s story is another and can be found here. http://www,cfcoklahoma.org

“This is a tough one because if “she” was a “he” and we knew of a 29 year old man that performed oral sex on a young teen girl when he was 17, would we be as understanding on the subject of him regaining all his legal rights?” By Belinda Joy Lathan on 11/24/2008 11:57 am I would Belinda. There are several young men in this area whose homes show up on the sex offender locater website who shouldn’t be on there. Imagine this: You have an 17 yr. old son who dates a 15 yr. old girl, a circumstance not that uncommon in high schools around the country. He breaks it off with her for another girl and to get revenge she tells her parents he took advantage of her. Your son is labeled a sex offender for life. When the parties involved are between 14 and 18 with no more than 2 years between their ages the sex offender registry and laws shouldn’t apply unless there is actually a forcible rape.

These banishment laws are insane. One was passed in California a while back and was just found unconstitutional because its requirement that no offender could live within 2000 feet of a school or park effectively caused them to have to leave entire communities. When it was on the ballot, someone did a map and it showed that there were hardly any places that were ok for people to live. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/21/BAER14966O.D… Child sex abuse is a terrible thing, but we have gone too far in our laws. We can’t be treating people like this, putting scarlet letters on them, and lumping together people who are truly dangerous with ones like the woman described in this article. It seems that if people are that dangerous maybe we should think of a better solution that perpetual eviction. These laws have had the unintended consequence of causing many sexual offenders to stop registering and change their identities. I wonder if she could petition to have her youthful crime record expunged. In some states, that can be done, and it affects a whole range of rights. Probably not in Georgia.

This should be an outrage…we waste so much money in this country going after people who have already paid the price for their crimes. Just like the 60 minutes piece on Homeland Security going after widows…widows? Surely there is a better use of time and money…what ever happened to common sense??????

First of all, I think that Georgia has a tendency to go overboard on teenaged “sex-offenders.” I can’t believe that a 17 year old, whether male or female, was tried for a sex offense in the first place. I am uncertain to what Georgia’s “age of consent ” law is, but the laws for consenual sex between teens should not be judged the same, nor the punishment for those so-called crimes, as those laws that currently exists for adults and teens who have committed forced, sexual misconduct. It’s a pity that the justice system in some parts of the country have adopted the same mentality that school administrators use - that is, the “zero tolerance mentality.” It is clear that one set of laws cannot possibly address every circumstance. We live most of our lives in the grey areas rather than those distinctly clear areas of black and white. It’s time to stop living by using our fears as the touchstone for logic and reasoning.

This is a result of a ridiculous lack of common sense. A 17 year old/16 year old having sex. Whoa!! Does that really occur??? I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you. And the girl is slightly older not an adult who abused a child. Get real. We are wasting money and still punishing this woman for a teenaged act. The appropriate thing then would have been counseling. Let’s wreck this woman’s life and brand her a sex offender when W can kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people and be feted around the world. Or a sitting Senator….David Vitter…can have repeated sex with prostitutes, a crime, and he’s still in the Senate? What kind of Bizzarro Planet is this.

IF… and I say “if” in a big way as I’m taking for granted that wow has it’s facts straight… so if the facts are as presented exactly. then hell yes this woman needs to be given a serious break. as far as i’m concerned it would mean she was 1) criminalized for something that shouldn’t have been a crime period and 2) being dropped through some twilight zone hole in the system that punishes her for eternity for something that didn’t deserve punishment to begin with. I didn’t read all of the above debates in full. sort of skimmed them. But frankly i’m shocked at the rather victorian attitude of a couple of you folks. you really think that a 15 and 17 year old having sexual contact is CRIMINAL? Really? seriously? I just can’t help but have my jaw on the floor over that one. i just think you’ve got to be kidding. I’m not saying it’s ideal. I’m not saying it’s something i’d wish on a teenager or hope for a teenager… but CRIMINAL. Seriously…

Looks like she won a temporary court order letting her stay in her house pending the outcome of the litigation. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/11/24/sex_offender_g…