A few months ago, I wrote about a woman by the name of Bridget Caplin. I had to take that article down because it was an ongoing investigation.
Here is the backstory: an anonymous tip had stated that Bridget Caplin was performing sex acts and sending promiscuous pictures to minors. An investigation on her started, and when the investigation was complete, she was charged.
She was facing charges that included using a computer to commit a crime, criminal sexual conduct, and sending explicit pictures to minors.
As far as authorities know, only 2 boys were involved. One had received pictures from this woman, and the other had a sex act performed on her.
Bridget Caplin was a 41-year-old paraprofessional at East Middle School in Plymouth. When the time came for her pretrial, media outlets had Facebooked live the hearing. The minors names were mentioned.
A week later, her preliminary exam occurred. Because the media released the boys names', one of them didn't want to testify because of embarrassment. He was willing to testify in private with the judge, and the 2 attorneys present.
She ended up pleading no contest so the other kid didn't have to testify anyway. However, the kid that was willing to testify wasn't associated with the more serious sex crime.
Her sentencing was January 11th. She is on probation for 2 years. She must avoid contact with anyone under the age of 17 (including her children), she has to receive help for sex, drug, and alcohol addiction, and she has to register as a tier 1 sex offender on the sex offender registry. She also cannot have any drugs or alcohol. Any violations of her probationary terms will result in an automatic 6 month time in jail with 31 days time served.
I'm not writing about this to exploit her, her family, or the parties involved. I'm writing about this to bring out the sexism that is in our judicial system.
If this was a male paraprofessional with a female student being charged with the same crime, he would be locked up for awhile.
So what makes being a female any different? The crime is the same, and although it might be considered an "achievement" for these kids, the fact of the matter is they were still taken advantage of. They are still victims. It is not normal for an adult to do that kind of stuff with a child. The sex of the perpetrator should not make a difference. This woman got lucky in a way. She will never be able to work at another school for 15 years, she can't even be around her own kids right now.
Any information that I have just written about is on OTIS which is Michigan's correctional facility website. You can look up any inmate. Active or discharged.
Disclosure: Other news outlets that covered this story include channel 7 WXYZ news channel, FOX 2 news channel, Detroit News, Plymouth-Canton Patch, among other news outlets.
