Boy, 15, kills himself after 'facing expulsion and being put on sex offender registry' for streaking

Submitted by Mastodon on Fri, 2013-10-11 18:50

Story here. Excerpt:

'A popular 15-year-old student has committed suicide after he reportedly faced expulsion and could have been placed on the sex offenders' register simply for streaking at a high school football game.

Christian Adamek, from Huntsville, Alabama, hanged himself on October 2, a week after he was arrested for running naked across the Sparkman High football field during a game.

The teenager died two days later from his injuries and on Wednesday, friends and family gathered at a memorial service as they struggled to comprehend the beloved student's death.
...
In Alabama, indecent exposure is linked to the state's sex offender laws, meaning that he could have found himself on the sex offenders register due to the streaking.

Campbell added that that the incident was not just a prank and needed to be treated seriously.

Sparkman High administrators even recommended that Adamek face a hearing in the Madison County court system to determine if formal charges would be filed, WHNT reported.'

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Comments

Stealing a loaf of bread = years in jail at hard labor. Not that long ago: the story line of "Les Miserables" starts with a man in jail for that.

In the 1970s, streaking became a national practical joke here in the US. If caught, the streaker was charged with anything from disorderly conduct to indecent exposure and either fined or given a suspended sentence, contingent on no priors or good behavior going forward. That was usually enough to de-wind his sails, and the streak of streaking died down pretty fast. By 1980, it was passé, like a tired old joke.

Occasionally though, someone, usually a teenager as in this case, streaks. And indeed, to discourage it, there ought to be some legal repercussions that let him know, while it isn't as bad as plenty of other things you could have done, it's not to be repeated. The same approach as used in the 1970s could be used now.

But no. Today, something like streaking, though rightly illegal, instead has to include a whole legal production, complete with scarlet letter marking the miscreant as a SEX OFFENDER. Well, to be fair, the law never even had a chance to get there. The principal merely had to point out that such was possible (and it is) and to suggest that the school *may* pursue criminal charges. That's all it took.

I don't blame the principal, really. And if the matter had actually wound up before a judge, I'd like to think he/she would've handled this case wisely. But the fact that the boy could even have been placed on a sex offender registry for one case of streaking points out how ridiculous things have gotten.

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2013-10-12 13:40