Disgusting stories just keep coming
Wednesday was a day full of startling news. News that makes you wonder about the future of society.
* Ex-Sooner football player Eric Thunander, 29, was charged in Cleveland County District Court with three counts of lewd acts with a child and one count of possession of child pornography. Just last year, the deaf Thunander published a book, Silent Thunder, in which he detailed his life of overcoming depression and drug addiction and a dysfunctional family.
* Joshua Spires, 28, former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jay in Delaware County, was charged with 10 counts of of lewd molestation. He is accused of having consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl from his church, with some of the acts coming on his desk where he also prepared sermons. The relationship allegedly started when Spires was the church’s youth pastor.
* And Millwood Middle School assistant football coach Larry Ray Buck, 50, was arrested on complaints of lewd acts with a former female student, who was 14 at the time.
The stories just kept coming, one after another. An inspirational athlete. A pastor. A coach. All facing disgusting charges. Three men easy to trust. Which could be part of the problem. Easy trust can lead to a relaxed guard.
This Wednesday was a valuable reminder to us all, a lesson that we don’t really know people just because of reputation or titles or position.
The story of Thunander will hit hardest, because while few Oklahomans have heard of Buck or Spires, thousands have followed Thunander, who was one of Bob Stoops’ early recruits and, despite a rollercoaster beginning, seemed to be a success story. As recently as last May, Thunander spoke at the baccalaureate service for Norman graduates. Now his life is in tatters again.
And we all are further warned. Be wary of people with access to our children, no matter their title, no matter their fame.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Comments
I think it is a message for Parents more than children. Too bad about Thunander. He was a nice story for a while. I hope he but mostly the child get help and are able to get on with life. Pessimism isn’t a good way to go through life but a little skepticism is okay when looking out for children.
There are a lot of good stories about OU players and I am sure we will have some great ones this year. Go OL!
and now this Quigley character gets reinstated so he
can pander his products in OKC schools. This may be
the worst story of them all….
David…..You must be joking. For every pervert who gets caught, there are thousands who go on molesting, who are not caught. You should wise-up. Being a career law enforcement officer, I don’t trust “ANYBODY” with my children. Not even Grandpa. It’s not worth the risk. Nobody can ever know everything and anyone.
You can’t be proective enough over your child but you can be over protective not allowing them to learn about the world. society’s problem today is a result of evolution. We have done more to harm mankind than we have done good. Nice to know that Mr.Thunander will have FREE LEGAL representation and he eats free every day along with a free place to stay. What about the victim what does he or she get? A bad memory and gets sheilded from the news for a few days. It used to be safe for our kids to walk to the neighbors home. Plenty of necks not enough rope I guess. Some, that will offend but I would suppose if it offends you then you or your family have not been victims yet.
Its nice to know that Oklahoma is one of the few states that can give the death penalty for sexual assault with a child victim.
Until our society owns the destructive and deprave influence of pornography things will only get WORSE. These men/women didn’t start out ’sick’. Meaning, it was OK to look, view then participate in lewd and immoral behavior. As long as it hurt no one else as it is ‘freedom of choice’… Pornography always hurts someone else…and progresses in the most vile, deeming behavior until one is ‘given over’. Too bad ‘immoral’ and ‘lewd’ has been redefined in our culture. May God have mercy on our souls.
“And we all are further warned. Be wary of people with access to our children, no matter their title, no matter their fame.”
For every child molested there are SO MANY more who are not! The “Be afraid, be VERY afraid attitude” we force on our children is the real threat to a sane society. Many adults feel they must tip-toe around when in the presence of children so as to not look “suspicious.” THAT is also disgusting. Sad stories (and they ARE tragedies) like you posted about above have been happening since the beginning of time, Berry. With almost real-time news we only hear about it more often when it DOES happen. The answer isn’t to send our children cowering in fear of every adult.