Myspace, Teachers attempting molestation Options

[thanhmai]

So I live in a small rich suburb called Saratoga in CA. There's about 4 or 5 high schools within the city, so one of the local schools got quite a riot this past February.
Even though the teacher was caught, what if it really had been a 12 year old?
Would she have deserved what might have been coming?

Westmont teacher charged with attempted child molestation
By Alicia Upano
Luke Lajoie, a part-time math teacher at Westmont High School was arraigned on Feb. 23 on charges of attempted child molestation and attempting to send harmful matter over the Internet to a minor. He was released on Feb. 24 on $25,000 bail.

Santa Clara County deputy district attorney Bud Porter, who is handling Lajoie's case, said the two felonies carry a maximum of four years and four months in prison.

Campbell police arrested the 35-year-old San Jose resident Lajoie on Feb. 20.

Lajoie went to a Campbell location wanting to have a sexual encounter with a 12-year-old girl he met online, according to Campbell Police Capt. Russ Patterson. However, the online minor was really a Campbell undercover police detective.

Lajoie was one of three individuals arrested by Campbell police during last month's undercover operation. Pritpal Singh, 26, from San Jose was arrested on Feb. 1 and Ashish Prabhakar, 35, from Santa Clara was arrested on Feb. 8. Both men were charged with attempted child molestation and sending harmful matter over the Internet. All three men were attempting to meet the 12-year-old girl in Campbell.

Patterson said, that given Lajoie's profession, authorities are concerned he may have other victims. The other two men arrested were not teachers.

Lajoie was hired by the Campbell Union High School District to teach math part time on Aug. 26, 2005. After his arrest, the district placed Lajoie on mandatory leave of absence pending the investigation, the district said in a statement.

The Campbell Police Department began its undercover child predator online operation a month ago, due to an increase in pedophile activity on Internet websites such as MySpace.com, according to police.

Recently, a 26-year-old Santa Cruz man was arrested on charges of child molestation, for having illegal relations with a 14-year-old girl he met on MySpace.com.

"There's a lot of activity on MySpace.com, and children being subject to sexual predators out there," Patterson said. "We thought it was important to start working there."

http://www.community-newspapers.com/archiv.../sn-news8.shtml

[*WHIMSICAL 0NE*]

If you're stupid enough to try to mess with a child online, you need to be arrested. The fact that he was a teacher just proves that they're everywhere and anywhere.
I do think that parents need to teach their children better, because sadly a lot of children are the target of sexual preditors online. Parents need to teach their children not to give out their phones numbers too (I've seen kids who have posted their phone number's on their myspace's. why?!)

[xoxo_proud]

How stupid can you get?

My teacher had a Myspace but deleted it. I think it was because my school made him. I wouldnt be surprised if they did.

[Serendipity]

Myspace was cool for a while. Then you start hearing stories about online predators and stalkers. I had one for ... about a year or two? Then I deleted it. I guess if you're extra careful, it's all right, but some people just don't have common sense.

[lovescream]

At least that teacher got what he deserved. Meh. There isn't anything wrong with myspace, it's the people on it. I agree with WHIMSICAL 0NE. I think parents already do teach their kids that (as well as schools and some schools with police visiting) but they still do it anyway. Their own fault.