DATE: Saturday, November 22, 1997           TAG: 9711220008

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

THE LAW IS A ASS IT OUGHT TO BE A FELONY IN VIRGINIA TO SECRETLY VIDEOTAPE NAKED YOUNGSTERS.

Portsmouth Latin teacher and girls track coach John Crute is a weird man who did a bad thing, but under Virginia law he committed no felony when he secretly videotaped Woodrow Wilson High School girls undressing in a locker room.

That being so, the law must be changed.

Surely Virginia schoolchildren have the right to dress and undress without worrying that hidden cameras are secretly recording images of their naked bodies. Students in Virginia schools certainly deserve some assurance that the laws of the state will protect them from the camera lenses of kinky people who would splice their naked images into adult movies for strange purposes.

That's what Crute did, yet Virginia law offers no protection to these youngsters since they were not videotaped engaging in sexually explicit acts.

The General Assembly can fix that early next year.

Under current Virginia law, secretly videotaping a minor is a misdemeanor, but the statute of limitations expires 12 months after the tapes were made. The most offensive tapes made by Crute were more than one year old when police confiscated them. State legislators ought to change that law to make it 12 months after the discovery of such tapes.

Fortunately, federal law does offer protection against such invasions of privacy. We would urge federal prosecutors to investigate the activities of Crute to see if he hasn't committed a civil rights violation against the girls. If so, the federal courts ought to have a shot at Crute. But you shouldn't have to go to the federal government for protection against such acts.

The girls also have a strong civil case against their former track coach. Collecting damages from a teacher who hasn't worked in two years, however, will be another matter.

But one of the more irritating aspects of this case is that Crute still had a job as of late this week. The Portsmouth school system suspended him the same week he was charged with making the tapes (in 1995) and escrowed his pay. That was the right thing to do since the presumption of innocence is the underpinning of our entire judicial system.

But Crute did not deny making the tapes and even his defense lawyer admitted Crute made them. The Portsmouth school system appeared to be waiting for a resolution of the criminal case before firing a man who should never be allowed inside another school - with or without his cameras. Surely admitting to such behavior should be simple grounds for dismissal and a forfeiture of back pay.

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