I read with utter disgust Dan Alexander's piece on past sexual abuse at Pingry, the prestigious private school in Somerset County. Thad Alton taught there in the 1970's and was eventually charged with abusing children, then did it again in a new setting and eventually served far too few years in jail. Now an investigation has turned up many more victims at the hands of multiple alleged abusers at Pingry dating back to the 1960's as well as 1970's. There were in fact so many victims that a support group was formed called The Pingry Survivors. The investigation turned up at least 27 more child sex abuse victims.

On Thad Alton, one of the most disturbing passages of Dan's story was this:

After he left the school, he was charged a year later by prosecutors in Essex County on charges of molesting 12-year-old boys, who also had been his students, during a scouting trip in which they played strip poker. He pleaded guilty in 1980 and was sentenced to probation after a psychologist determined that he was not a compulsive sex offender. He got a job in 1981 at a university in upstate New York, where he continued to work with children with a kayaking club he started. And the abuse continued.

Later in the '80s he was charged with molesting and sodomizing two 14 and 15 year old boys, raping a 12 year old boy, and fondling a 10 year old boy. He even admitted to having sexual contact with two other boys two years prior. Upon conviction, what was his sentence? Six years in prison. He was out in less.

Alive and free to this day, I have to ask why? In what moral code does a dangerous, miswired freak like this deserve to live? New Jersey abolished the death penalty under Corzine after years of having it but not using it. Isn't child rape the one crime everyone would be on board with for bringing the death penalty back? If you've listened to the show over the years you've heard me say that this crime is tantamount to murder. The pedophile doesn't physically kill his victims, but he kills them mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and leaves behind someone that child was not meant to be. The person that child would have grown into is gone forever, and that's as bad as murder my friends. Perhaps worse.

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