The first story I found was one that came at an appropriate time. I had just seen an episode of “Law and Order: SVU” in which a young boy had been sexually abused by his stepfather for a while without his mom knowing. She was unaware because her husband persuaded her to take sleeping pills to get a better night’s sleep. In the end, the stepfather was found to be a member of a group of men who believed pedophilia should be legal.
The news story I found was that of a young girl who had been impregnated by a 33-year-old man and had carried the baby until its birth when she was 10.
The father of the young girl did not know of her pregnancy until he took her to a clinic where it was revealed to him. She had never told her father because she feared being returned to Haiti if the news got out.
A main point of the group of men on the “Law and Order” episode was that love between a man and a child was just as serious and sacred as love between two adults. This cannot be a legitimate argument because children of the ages that were represented do not know what it means to love. The children are scared into consenting to sexual actions rather than actually wanting to be a part of them. The young girl from Haiti proves this by admitting she feared being sent back to Haiti if she had told anyone about her situation.
In the next situation, the accused men are all a good bit younger than the man in the previous story, but their actions are just as detestable. On March 10, six young members of a gang (the oldest being 19 with all being over 14) decided it would be fun to use an older girl to lure a younger girl (11 years old) into a bathroom where they would then gang rape her.
They were all caught shortly after the rape was reported. Since they were all over 14, they each can (and most likely will) be tried as adults.
The third occasion took place in Michigan when a young couple, or at least the male of the relationship, decided to have a child. It seemed like a simple pregnancy gone wrong as the 13-year-old girl gave birth to a stillborn child. Upon further inspection, the 16-year-old father of the baby is now facing charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. It was also discovered that they share the same address and last name, but the sheriff declined to explain how the two teens are related.
The young lady kept her pregnancy a secret from everyone. The adults living with her knew nothing of it. They also had no idea she had stashed the body of her stillborn child in the attic above their heads.
So far, all of these stories are of direct sexual abuse to girls younger than the perpetrators. This is illegal and, to be blunt, disgusting. Nothing steals innocence worse than sexual abuse.
The fourth story I found disgusted me more than any of the others. The fourth deals with a mom and her own 4-year-old daughter, which is far beyond terrible.
The award for the worst mother of the year goes to 28-year-old Andrea Ziza of St. Clair, Mich. Mrs. Ziza was accused of offering her 4-year-old daughter to a man she had met on a dating website for sex.
I’ve been having trouble trying to figure out how to write my feelings about this last situation. Most likely, you could take the feelings and thoughts you are having about this subject, put them on paper and know they are exactly what I am feeling.
If you see nothing wrong with what Mrs. Ziza did, you should be locked up, too.
Jay Ballard is  a freshman majoring in chemistry. He can be contacted at [email protected].