Melissa Salsbury, the local performer who models under the name Mia Rose, is in Benton County jail for performing in a motivational assembly at Ki-Be High School. Do you think she's being treated fairly? It's been the top news story all week with her photos in all the media with the label "sex offender."

One of my coworkers made the following argument:

She's a registered sex offender for running a prostitution ring with high school girls when she was 18 years old. Being so young, one could say she was a child herself... a victim of older criminals who took advantage of her. She played her part, but she also paid the price and did her time. Now she's a real adult, telling her story to motivate others to avoid her pitfalls or reform their own lives. Hers is a success story we should encourage.

On the other hand,

When you are a registered sex offender you are told what you can and can't do. In addition to registering with local police whenever you move (which she didn't do) you're told to never go where minors congregate including parks, public swimming pools and schools. Even though she's Level 1 (lowest risk) it's curious she thought she was cleared to be a guest at a school and sign autographs and take pictures with the kids. Her crime was recruiting teenage girls to prostitution and the courts told her to stay away from teenage girls.

The media's reaction to both Salsbury and Ki-Be High School has been pretty harsh. Is it justified?

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