I do not know the details of what McLellan has done, but if he has done nothing even arguably criminal, it is unfair to say he has 'flirted with the line,' as another poster commented. It doesn't make sense to me for a judge to order a restraining order to protect all the children in California from one person -- were they made parties in the complaint? It seems like an invalid order and will likely be overturned if challenged.

The hostility felt towards pedophiles, rapists, and the like is a manufactured phenomenon, as surely as is the demand for name-brand soft drinks. This hostility is a phase, and it will pass. A responsible and scientific cost-benefit analysis of the harm vs benefit for torturing sex offenders is overdue, and it will come soon. When it does, the ridiculously long prison sentences, harmful psychological and drug therapies, ridiculous stigma, and preposterous conditions on release faced by these people will go away.

On a personal note, when I attended high school, one of our teachers was a very motivated, caring, generous, happy and attractive young woman. She made the mistake of getting sexually involved with a male student, a senior, who was arguably one of the most intellectually capable students at the school. A few years later he grew angry at her for some reason and had her charged with statutory rape. After a multiple-year prison sentence, she now is registered as a sex offender, can never teach again, and she looks absolutely awful. She can't even live where she wants to live. It is disgraceful what was done to this woman, and such acts cannot long continue in a free country with free exchange of ideas and legitimate scientific research.

I agree.

This smacks of punishing someone for what they "may" do rather than anything they actually did.

This sounds like how the bush admin functions against "suspected" terrorists and detaining them without rights to counsel, etc.

Isn't the obvious solution to make posting blogs that tell child molesters where to find children ILLEGAL as well as imposing longer sentences on offenders and life sentences on repeat offenders.

People go to jail for life for selling drugs but you can have sex with your own child and get a slap on the hand.

I am disgusted that a teacher had sex with a high school student. And to make it sound "ok" because it was a woman and the kid was "smart" is even worse. She deserves what she got.

Because our laws are so weak, many child abusers are not brought to justice. Especially those who sexually abuse their own children. I know one in particular--a friends father who abused her from the age of 3 on.

We should be ashamed our laws do not protect children.

I hope he lives next to those of you worried about his freedoms. By the way, he lives in PA. Maybe he is your neighbor?

The pedophile problem seems to revolve around the basic assumption by some that people who engage in sexual activity with a minor can be dealt with rationally and logically. After all, we are evolving into a higher state of reality, so we have good reason to be optimistic about human behavior, and so on.

But reality tends to bite us in the rear in many cases. When an attractive, gifted female teacher chooses to become involved sexually with a high school student, she crosses a line. That line is not rational, nor will the consequences necessarily be logical. Nor will society be patient and longsuffering with the offender.

It wasn't until he reached maturity that he appreciated the gravity of her culpability for that betrayal of trust that must exist between teacher and student. If he treatment was unfair, oh well...if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

Kid rapers are not the victims. Science is not always legitimate and the free exchange of ideas can get you prison time if they're exchanged with a minor.

Put that in your liberal pipe and smoke it!

To say that the hostility felt towards pedophiles, rapists and the like is a manufactured one is one of the most ignorant and and out of touch statements I have read in well, since I have read about the WMD in Iraq. And to say that once this "phase" passes, the scientific "torture" of these people will end is an idea that is a misinterpretation of the medical model and out of touch with the realities of pedophilia. The reason there is so much of it in the media today is that after a multitude of decades of "looking the other way", this taboo subject is finally seeing the light of day.

People who molest children have an illness that does not seem to be curable. It is proven that almost 100% of the offenders will re-offend. This is not a notion, it is FACT. So unequivocally yes, more work has to be done to see if these people can be helped to lead any semblance of a normal life at all. To restrict their movements and keep tabs on them is the best a society can do other than internment camps to protect our children from them while they are trying to correct this insidious problem. Not to mention the convicted predators who are not willing to seek help and are just looking for the next innocent victim.

I saw a news segment about a convicted pedophile who had to live under a bridge because of the restrictions placed upon him by the court. Did I feel for him? Yes, I sure did. BUT I happen to REALLY feel for the child he hurt. He changed the course of this child's life and damaged the psyche of an innocent that may take a lifetime to deal with. I would not allow him to live in my neighborhood. Do I feel for him. A little but this predator has made his (her) own bed!! I also feel for the teacher you knew but again, she crossed the line. She was the adult and he was the kid, smart, dumb or anything in between.

In all reality, it doesn't not appear that McLennan committed an actual crime (that he has been caught at?) so as far as the ruling standing up in court, who knows. BUT--I used to drink. I don't anymore. So needless to say, I don't spend any time in bars, package stores or staring at the pretty bottles on the internet. I don't "flirt with the lines". Get it?

How ironic it is that living next to a sex offender would possibly be far better than living next to you. Your utter lack of compassion for sex offenders and utter lack of compassion that you show period, no matter what the circumstances of the offender or conditions of his life leading to whatever offense someone may or may not have committed, and what would appear to be of anyone who you don't care about, however your right to be like this, shows to me that you are cruel for cruelties sake alone. Do you deserve any more respect than a sex offender, do you? In my book, you are one and the same.