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[–] 88 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (18 children)

Stay classy, Texas. I believe in redemption. But I also believe a convicted sex offender can't continue coaching kids and needs to find another line of work...

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  • [–] 74 points 6 months ago (16 children)

    I mean,

    "Convicted sex offender" can mean anyone from a serial rapist to someone who peed outside. But the byline says:

    The former Houston Astros prospect holds previous charges of online solicitation of a minor and domestic violence.

    So he shouldn't be in a school.

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  • [–] 20 points 6 months ago (13 children)

    Are there really a lot of people who peed outside in the ranks of sex offenders? Kinda find that hard to believe.

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  • [–] 19 points 6 months ago

    It really depends on how granular the laws get in certain areas.

    But for example indecent exposure may not be a mandatory register on the sex offenders registry, but within 200m of a school or playground is mandatory. (even if it was 2am on a sunday in the middle of the school holidays during the dead of winter.) Like the whole getting booked for drunk driving for being drunk and going to your car to get a jacket.

    There are people who are on the register who shouldnt be and people who absolutely should be who arent.

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  • [–] 12 points 6 months ago (6 children)

    Define "a lot"

    It can also mean someone breastfeedig in public

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  • [–] 9 points 6 months ago (5 children)

    It just comes across as arguing, "but sex crimes are often overstated and not that serious, mostly minor things!" No pun intended.

    But when you look through the registries, the crimes are usually clearly spelled out and much worse than what you're suggesting.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago (4 children)

    I was just double checking. Most convictions that carry a sex offender label are actually serious, but most is not all.

    DUI can also mean being completely sober and not driving a vheicle.

    And what am I "suggesting"??

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  • [–] -2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    I am always fascinated by people who put a lot of energy into pretending that sex crimes aren't a big deal and that a lot of registered sex offenders really didn't do anything.

    It is objectively untrue, and any amount of research will demonstrate that.

    So what is the deal? Why are doing it?

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  • Yes, whoever couldn't afford a private attorney. I was charged with urinating in public once, public defender wanted me to plea guilty, i would have ended up on sex offender registry.

    private attorney came in got it reduced to blocking the sidewalk. It's really that fucked in this country, nobody goes for committing crimes, that's just a coincidence. The real crime is being too poor to afford an attorney who will get you out of that.

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  • [–] -1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Its a thing that has happened like once or twice but every sex offender pretends it was them that it happened to and lots of people like to perpetuate the myth.

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  • [–] -3 points 6 months ago

    Pretty much what it feels like. I was expecting at least one or two anecdotes. It's like the "welfare queen" argument. Are there individuals abusing those systems? Probably. Duh. But it's not so severe that it should prevent us from helping literally all the other people. Tangent, but same stupid argument structure.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago* (1 child)

    public urination isnt a sex offense, its likely misdeameanor for public indency. more than likely its FLASHING young girls with your penis, or whatever. there are some sites that allow you to see sex offendors in your area, and some of them to give you what they were caught with, alot of them tends toward showing your junk.

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  • [–] 139 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    Tommy now spends his time pouring into young men around him

    Excellent choice of words!

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  • [–] 62 points 6 months ago (13 children)

    If I got a waiver like that, it wouldn't end with me refusing to sign that waiver. I'll be making an appointment to speak with the principal, and you'll be hearing from me at the next school board meeting.

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  • [–] 53 points 6 months ago (8 children)

    Yeah exactly.

    I came here thinking 'maybe he's on the registry because at 19yo he fucked his 17yo GF and her parents found out'... nope. It's every bit as bad as you'd think.

    "Eventually I found myself in chat rooms late into the night while my wife and innocent infant daughter slept. I was engaging in inappropriate conversations that led to adultery. One of these online conversations ended up being with a minor…but it was never a minor…it was a police officer. The sting went down exactly like you would imagine on T.V. It was no question the worst day AND the best day of my life."

    Here's the thing with those 'stings'- they are not entrapment. The agent makes it clear they are a minor. There's no confusion, no 'I thought she was 18'. That would kill the prosecution and give the defense ammunition. No, the agent 'minor' gives themselves an age that's below 18.

    This is no innocent guy trapped in a big net. This is a guy who made plans with a minor to meet up and have sex, KNOWING they weren't 18.

    If that were my kid I'd be demanding the heads of everyone who signed off on his hiring and that waiver as they are obviously unfit to be in charge of education. Doesn't matter if it's the principal of the school, pick someone random off the street and they'd do a better job not hiring would-be child rapists to supervise children.

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  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago

    John Oliver just did something on this. “Police stings” is th episode…

    It’s not as clear cut as you say. The answer depends on the police or sheriff depts conducting it.

    There is also a culture of making these things happen to juice their numbers.

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  • [–] -4 points 6 months ago (6 children)

    I don't know about that. There are cases where "person" said they where older then go oh I'm 14. And then the person keeps talking and they get busted.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] [S] 7 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    I’ve heard of vigilante groups doing it for content. There was a case I remember from last year where a man was attacked - the person he was talking to never claimed to be underage, but was a group of people trying to make something for a YouTube channel or something. Didn’t find the article, but the search terms “innocent” “pedobait” and “vigilante” provide enough search results to suggest that it might be a problem.

    In Russia, Ghana, and undoubtedly other countries but those are ones I’ve read specific examples of recently - it’s not uncommon for gaybashers to get on apps like Grindr and get entirely away with it. Likely that one of the strats is to claim to be pedobaiting.

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  • [–] [S] 14 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Might run into more problems at the school board meeting (this one is from Tennessee)

    God, You Are Hot': US School Board Member To Teen Girl Student During Public Meeting

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  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Yep. Not into the oul' school board meetings myself but a waiver like that is definitely going to push me across the line into rabbid activism, complete with pitchfork.

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  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago

    Only problem is I'll have to do a lot of apologizing because until I get to that school board meeting, I'm going to be talking about it a lot, just to keep my righteous anger cranked up. Feel sorry for my family.

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  • [–] 121 points 6 months ago (11 children)

    Coach Tommy can speak first-hand about the dark shadows of sports, especially professionally. He, himself a talented athlete, spent many years praising himself and feeding his flesh. The Lord so graciously refused to let the world have him and rescued him from his sin in a tremendously dramatic, yet necessary way. Tommy now spends his time pouring into young men around him, helping them navigate this tricky culture with Christ.

    FUCKING YIKES!

    A school sent that out? What the fuck?

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  • [–] 21 points 6 months ago* (1 child)

    That's specifically from the Jeezus-y homeschool-centric baseball academy and travel team that actually employees him. One district, Southlake Carroll (they of the "rich racists" NBCNews podcast and just generally obnoxious try-hards), had him listed as an authorized outside coach. So not exactly from a school, but absolutely and horrifically education-adjacent.

    No worries though! There was also the nominally public charter school in San Angelo, which still has their Christ-centered mission on their about page from when they were a creepy Christian private school, who just had to fire the football staff and half the adminsitration for giving a bunch of kids rhabdo and then covering it up. Their sister school had to fire all the kindergarten(!) teachers because they marched misbehaving children around the room so the other kids could shout "shame!" and point.

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  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago

    absolutely and horrifically education-adjacent.

    I work on a ski team helping set up the course and not even directly interacting with athletes (unless theirs an injury, we’re sort of the first responder to stabilize and radio to patrol if necessary). Just in order to do that job I have to spend 2-3 hours each season reviewing Safe Sport courses that train us to spot, report and prevent creeps like that from abusing children. And it’s not even difficult, if you have at least half a (non-perverted) brain, it’s mostly common sense.

    Getting a letter like this as a parent would be calling national news worthy level of creepy.

    Fucking insane Christian language makes it even creepier. This sounds like enabler bullshit and should get reported to authorities on its own.

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  • [–] 113 points 6 months ago (15 children)

    How are registered child sex offenders not legally barred from working with or around children in every US state? How is this not a law that already exists?!?!?

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  • [–] 97 points 6 months ago (7 children)
  • [–] 38 points 6 months ago (6 children)

    Correction: Texas is run by the oil companies.

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  • [–] 13 points 6 months ago* (2 children)

    Why do the oil companies want sexual predators to work in schools?

    I know why the GOP wants it. They protect their own.

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  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago*

    It very much is against the law. Read to the end. Here's the last paragraph of the article:

    According to the law offices of Ned Barnett, Texas law prevents registered sex offenders from working in places frequented by children, including schools, daycare centers and playgrounds or attending school events like sports games. Some can interact with children at family gatherings or public events, supervised when interacting with children according to court orders and the nature of the offense.

    This isn't a problem with the law as much as it is a specific group of people trying to wallpaper a sort of compliance with the law while ignoring the substance of it altogether. First paragraph of the article, emphasis mine:

    The Texas Home Educators Sports Association (THESA) thought it could get away with allowing a registered sex offender to coach minors by sending parents a waiver to sign, with the coach's testimony attached, according to Amy Smith at watchkeep.org.

    Note also from somewhere in the middle of the article:

    The waiver mentioned nothing about his offender status.

    And if you're wondering wtf, you're not wrong: all this careful arrangement of fact seems like a very creative effort on the part of the author and editor to actively distance point A from point B. It's possible they're just trying very hard not to piss anyone off in what is already a lost cause.

    Or to put it another way, in a state with a very high year-round accumulation of snowflakes, this article involves three very special groups of special snowflakes all at once: a sex offender and his personal fans, the homeschoolers, and the evangelical Christians, and how they are faking compliance with state law by making sure the parents sign a waiver -- one that hides the relevant information about a sex offender with a history of minors -- before giving him free access to their children in direct contradiction to the law, a law they knew enough about to deliberately circumvent.

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  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago

    Houston Astros prospect

    Because he's good at baseball...

    It's been shown over and over again that parents and administrators will turn a blind eye to shit like this if it means their kid has a chance at the big leagues

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  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago* (1 child)

    The idiots living in these states would rather have this than state run healthcare and public transit for everyone paid for by billionaires who could easily afford it. And anyone who is “different” ends up in some “reeducation camp”. Or jail. Or worse.

    Because some invisible sky wizard said so.

    Or something

    And that’s if you’re lucky enough to be white. If you’re not, or if you have some kind of “accent”, much much worse, happens to you…

    Do you think the United States is better than Russia? Think again

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    Uhm.. From the article:

    According to the law offices of Ned Barnett, Texas law prevents registered sex offenders from working in places frequented by children, including schools, daycare centers and playgrounds or attending school events like sports games.

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  • [–] 36 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Aren’t these the same people who complain about drag queens reading to students?

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 6 months ago

    The Department of Defense wouldn’t hire me to teach because I’m trans lol. Wonder if the kiddy diddler would pass their background check.

    I’m moving states to be even be allowed to teach. I would absolutely lose my current position if it I was outed.

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  • [–] 30 points 6 months ago

    Ah, the Christian Republic of Texas as usual.

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  • [–] 21 points 6 months ago (6 children)

    I'm surprised Texas has a sex offender registry.

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  • [–] 19 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    I mean, Texas created the AMBER Alert system. Many republican voters do seem to genuinely care about protecting kids… They just have a really fucking warped idea of what that entails.

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  • [–] 21 points 6 months ago* (1 child)

    "He, himself a talented athlete, spent many years praising himself and feeding his flesh.. Tommy now spends his time pouring into young men around him"

    I'll bet

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  • [–] 14 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    So like the president? 😅

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  • [–] 12 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Remember people, in today's USA, it's better to be a sex offender than literally anything else. It's even better if you meddle with kids; that could secure you a position in the government. But girls liking girls? Big no-no.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    Anyone signing this waiver is a terrible parent.

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  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    If you read the article... the waiver doesn't directly mention his sex offender status. And as far as indirect, super vague. No one would guess from the waiver that he was a sex offender.

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  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    He "fed his flesh" and "poured into the young men around him"

    Can't get any more biblical than that. Really feel like they might've asked "Why do I need to sign this"

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    Down there, probably totally normal to boast some person's religous cred.

    That said, as a parent, I don't read in full wvery one of the upsurd number of things I have to sign for my kids. Theynprobably thought it was just another standard consent to play forms. I have little doubt that is what it was made to look like.

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  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago

    "Tommy now spends his time pouring into young men around him" definitely makes him sound innocent.

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  • [–] 18 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    WHY are you STUPID Libtards surprised that the Party of PROTECTING EPSTEIN is OK with Sex Offenders being around Children?

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  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Because a good christian male just made a mistake, he's sorry, it won't happen again.

    Meanwhile the girl who just wants to pee in peace is a predator and must be dealt with to the fullest extent of new laws that make Iran look progressive by comparison.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago

    Sigh... Texas...

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    THESA is scheduled to participate in the 2026 Homeschool World Series, which will feature 21 of the best Christian-based home-schooled teams all over North America. The week-long tournament begins on Monday, April 27, and is hosted at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, Florida.

    All the usual suspects. Sex offenders, Christianity, and right-wing states like Texas and Florida.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    who better to teach about sex offenders, non-consensual sex than a sex offender in TEXAS.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    Man they should make sex offender waivers for everything, like waivers for making your food, running in your elections, and ride-sharing

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    Oh boy

    The waiver was a part of THESA's registration packet, and reads: "Coach Tommy can speak first-hand about the dark shadows of sports, especially professionally. He, himself a talented athlete, spent many years praising himself and feeding his flesh. The Lord so graciously refused to let the world have him and rescued him from his sin in a tremendously dramatic, yet necessary way. Tommy now spends his time pouring into young men around him, helping them navigate this tricky culture with Christ. His heart is to not only share his vast knowledge of baseball skills, but more importantly, the freedom he found in his Redeemer. Before you commit to Coach Tommy's leadership, check out his testimony here."

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    Ah go on. I bet he loves him some Jeezus 'n' MAGA.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago
    [–] 1 point 6 months ago
    2 comments in c/dfw@lemmy.world view that post