We’re back at it, treating crimes that merit the good, old “locking the culprit in jail and throwing away the key” treatment for all the world like they’re minor misdemeanours.
The latest horror story to reach me is that of the 59-year-old bus driver who corrupted two school kids aged under 12. Yes, you read well. Aged under 12. Read about it here - http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130704/local/jail-term-for.476588.
The bus driver got handed a five-year jail term for his pains. Given the rather baffling crime-and-punishment system practised in Malta, you might say that five years is not to be sneezed at.
I beg to differ. Five years for robbing two kids of their innocence – even if the word, nowadays, is relative – is peanuts. When you compare it to the lifelong effect that the incident is likely to have on these kids, five years is laughable.
But this isn’t even the bit that makes me see red. No, what really gets my goat is the part where the accused tried to justify his actions by saying that the whole thing “started as a joke”.
Excuse me?
In which world is it ok for a man who is practically a sexagenarian to joke around with two 12-year-olds? Elderly men should never be ‘joking’ around with kids, even if they happen to be their schoolvan drivers.
The situation is distasteful at best and suspicious at worse, even if the topic happens to be the most innocent one imaginable. Let alone if it is sexual, as it turned out to be in this case.
The situation was serious from the get-go simply because a 59-year-old should never speak to children with any degree of familiarity, unless s/he is a very close and trusted family member or friend. And even then, we’ve seen where excessive familiarity can lead to.
Which brings me to my next point. In my school-days, school minivans always had a school representative present on the trip to and forth. The practice was discontinued, presumably because it is no longer viable.
In effect, this means that the driver him/herself is in loco parentis, so to speak. Are these drivers vetted prior to being engaged? Are character references requested? Are potential criminal records checked? Are there any sort of security measures in force whatseover?
Or is a valid, commercial driving licence all it takes to take up a job that in essence places all the responsibilities of a child minder onto a driver?
Some replies would be appreciated.
As a by-the-by, just to give you an inkling of the import we attach to such cases, most local news sites, apart from The Times, didn’t even report it.