Hot Model-cum-Teacher Pleads Insanity

Meet Debra Beasley Lafave.

The 24-year-old Floridian, formerly a model before becoming a middle school teacher, is pleading "not guilty due to insanity" to four counts of "lewd and lascivious battery" and one count of "lewd and lascivious exhibition". Each carries a maximum 15-year prison term.

Police said she had sex with a 14-year-old boy - whom she chaperoned on a school field trip - five times in early June, 2004.

Debra's lawyer, John Fitzgibbons, will file notice of an insanity defence. "Debbie has some profound emotional issues that are not her fault," Fitzgibbons had said late last year. Then, after the pretrial hearing yesterday, he reiterated her "emotional stress" and that she "did not know right from wrong", asking the reporters gathered outside the courtroom, "What teacher in her right mind would do something like this?"

Fitzgibbons had hoped to settle this case outside of court, but plea bargaining broke down when he felt the prosecutors wanted Debra to serve too much prison time. "To place an attractive young woman in that kind of hell hole is like putting a piece of raw meat in with the lions," he said. "I'm not sure she would survive."

There are issues to be examined here:

1. The use of "insanity" as an acceptable defence/excuse for committing a crime.
2. The gender equality issue involved in this case, in terms of both the perpetrator and the victim.

As the general population of this post-modern society becomes more me-centric, more and more people are looking to shift responsibilities - and subsequently, blames - onto other parties. It's never "my" fault anymore; always somebody else's. How many times have you heard of lawsuits resulting from careless restaurant patrons spilling hot coffee and burning themselves, or unwatchful parents letting their children get hurt at the playground or at home? Now, apparently, Fitzgibbons wants to argue that it wasn't Debra's fault that she had illegal extramarital sex with her student, because she had "profound emotional issues" that were outside her control, citing the tragic death of her pregnant older sister four years ago as the primary factor.

So, essentially, Fitzgibbons is saying that a person need not and cannot be held responsible for his actions if he has an excuse for it. Gee, well isn't that nice? I'm sure 90% of the criminals currently locked up in North America had "profound emotional issues" that led them to commit the most heinous of crimes. Why don't we let them all out on the basis that they had no control over these issues? Wouldn't that be nice? Sure would save us taxpayers a bundle not having to pay for their living expenses, not to mention their education, recreation, and freaking cable TV.

Seriously, I don't give a crap if her sister died. What she did to the 14-year-old boy is sick, and she needs to be locked up for it. If you think she won't survive, that's too bad; she should've considered that before riding the boy. And let's not forget: if it were a 24-year-old man screwing a 14-year-old schoolgirl, you'd all be thirsting for his blood.

Pleading insanity is akin to saying, "Don't hold me responsible for what I've done because I'm crrrraaaaazzzy! I don't have to take responsibility for anything I do because I'm crrrrrrrraaaaaazzzzzzyyy!!" If you're not responsible for your own life and your own actions, then pray tell, who is?

Lock her up in a cell. Let the other prisoners have their way with this fine piece of meat. Or, if the medical examiners do indeed determine that she's crrrraaaazzzy, then lock her up in an asylum. It's all the same to me.