Earlier in the school year an 18-year-old who lived in a group home in Penn Forest Township was arrested for bringing an air pistol to the Jim Thorpe High School where he was a student. He threatened no one, but he did show the pistol to two girls, the word got out, and he was arrested. This being the era of “zero tolerance,” a.k.a. the era of “no common sense,” the young man was put in jail and assigned a high bail. After all, he was a black kid who came from Philadelphia.
I made some phone calls at the time and found out the young man would have a public defender. Nonetheless, he spent 15 days in jail.
According to an article in the Times News last week, the young man appeared before Judge Steve Serfass and pleaded guilty. Judge Serfass sentenced him to time already served, said he couldn’t return to Jim Thorpe High, and gave him 100 hours of community service. Mr. Serfass is to be commended for what I think is a reasonable sentence. The fifteen days can’t be undone, but at least the young man won’t have to serve more jail time for a stupid act of the kind that 18-year-olds sometimes do.
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