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Morality and Decency Conference Speakers

A Pennsylvania woman will face no jail time, despite being convicted of selling via the Internet criminally obscene stories about the rape, torture, and murder of children. Karen Fletcher told a federal judge that she never intended to do anything illegal. She began writing graphic stories about violent sex crimes against fictional children in order to focus away from her the evil she had experienced as a child. But federal prosecutors see Fletcher as a pornographer, and a federal judge agreed -- sort of. U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti sentenced Fletcher to six months house arrest and five years probation after she pleaded guilty to six felony obscenity charges. Pat Trueman, special counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund and former chief obscenity prosecutor for the Justice Department, says the sentence in this case definitely does not fit the crime. "Men would subscribe to her website and be, of course, motivated by the stories that she wrote," Trueman explains. "And this is how sex crimes come about: People get ideas in their minds and they fuel them with stories and pictures, and then commit crimes." And while Fletcher argued that her tortured past and present condition as an agoraphobic should earn the court's leniency, Trueman disagrees. Attorney: Judge 'flat wrong' in obscenity case

An English-language advocate is pleased -- although surprised -- that a federal judge ruled against three Hispanic families who had sued a Catholic school for making their children speak English. The three families in question claimed that the principal of St. Anne Catholic School and the Wichita diocese discriminated against their children. But the school argued that the English-only rule was due to behavior problems by a few middle school students, and was not discriminatory. (See earlier story: "Wichita school wins language lawsuit, divides local church") Jim Boulet of English First says he understands what the school was trying to do. "If you break out into a foreign language, if you don't think people understand you, they tend to think you're talking about them, even if you are not," he contends. "And sometimes they were -- and the school is required to keep an atmosphere where students aren't insulted and harassed by other students." Boulet says the judge should not have even wasted court time dealing with such a frivolous lawsuit. "Suing a Catholic school, suing a nun for asking you to speak English so all the children could understand you. You want to file a lawsuit?" he questions. "[T]he judge should have laughed it out of court."According to Boulet, even though the judge ultimately did rule the school's English-only policy did not rise to the level of a "hostile educational environment," the diocese is still strapped with the substantial legal fees. But Boulet says he is joining other interested parties in contributing to its defense fund.