The state's largest newspaper today
takes note of the short prison terms given to some Oklahoma schoolteachers who sexually exploited children.
Former Western Heights Public Schools teacher and coach Tyrone Nash was sentenced to just two years in prison for a 2014 conviction of multiple counts of second-degree rape of a 17-year-old girl.
In July, a former Commerce teacher and coach, Thomas Fenderson, was sentenced to only one year in jail after being convicted of three separate charges of second-degree rape involving a 17-year-old student (including on school grounds).
According to the Miami News Record, the Ottawa County judge who handed down the sentence told Fenderson, “I would be surprised if this ever happened again in your life” due to the associated humiliation Fenderson had experienced.
But the newspaper reported that a pre-sentencing investigation found a former student accused Fenderson of inappropriate behavior from 2005 to 2007 while he was employed by a school district in Mount Vernon, Mo. Fenderson’s wife was also a student at a school where he previously taught.
Prosecutors had sought a 25-year sentence, arguing Fenderson’s crimes were willful and repetitive.
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