Victorian Vestiges Presist in Dane County

Madison.com reports that a 29 year-old (at time of arrest) coach, Jason Hairston, at East High was sentenced to seven years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a student. It goes without saying that it's unacceptable to have a sexual relationship with a student or subordinate at work. Our response to this unacceptable behavior is ill-conceived and extremely expensive. It's expensive in terms the cost of locking someone up for seven years but also in the lost productivity and the lost respect for the law. If the young woman had been two years older, this would have been a civil and employment issue. Making this case a criminal issue on par with armed robbery undermines respect for the law.

I condemn the way Dane County and District Attorney Shelly Rusch's handled this. In 100 years historians going over our records will struggle to understand what we were thinking.

I can't imagine how hard it must be for Mr. Hairston's family to have his worst mistakes made public and to have him jailed for something that's easy for people to be sanctimonious about. To those people I say let the one who's never in his life made a mistake that really hurt someone cast the first stone at Jason.