Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Braggin’ Blackhawk
The 18-year-old student who had sex with 22-year-old North Buncombe High School teacher’s assistant Heather Shelton told Michelle Boudin Monday night that he’s not a victim.
“We had sex. That’s all that needs to be said about that,” said the student, whose name we missed during the report. “You don’t choose who you fall in love with.”
Shelton stands charged with a crime for the sex because it’s against the law in N.C. for a teacher to have sex with a student, regardless of age. Shelton had her first court appearance Monday, so there was more hullabaloo. She faces 10 months in jail and having to register as a sex offender if convicted.
Boudin’s scoop at 11 came after she covered the Shelton’s afternoon court appearance, where she showed up holding the hand of the guy she’s engaged to marry. Boudin told us that the teacher-student affair started when the two met at Tan Universe on Merrimon Avenue (we can’t make this up) and before Heather got the North Buncombe High School job.
A sheriff’s deputy said the relationship between Heather and the student guy “heated up” after she started working at the school. The investigator said they’ve got “cards, letters and e-mails” as evidence showing the relationship between the two lovers. Boudin said Heather also wrote a “permission slip” of sorts for him to use one of her credit cards.
So at 11, loverboy says proudly that he did it – he had sex with Heather, and he’s 18 and he’s not a victim. He didn’t really say what he thought should happen to Heather, just that he had sex with her and he’s not a victim.
Forest fires
Cherub Charu was all over a forest fire in Transylvania County. It started as a 400-acre controlled burn set by the forest service, then jumped out of control over the weekend. It continued to burn Monday night. Lots of smoke freaked out some horses on a farm. That was about it.
Tax protesters
People protest everything in Ashvegas. Monday night, the deadline to mail in your taxes, three or four hippies stood outside the downtown Ashvegas P.O. and urged people to resist war by not paying their taxes, or at least including a message with your taxes that you don’t want your money spent on war-mongering. One guy, a member of the War Resisters League said the protest was a “conscientious objection to pay for death.”
In other news…
A Polk County pastor at Victory Baptist Church was arrested and charged with inappropriate touching of a youngster… In Dysartsville, the Shadows Den Wolf Sanctuary is shutting down and the 30 wolf-dogs are moving to a shelter in Black Mountain… Ashvegas Mayor Terry Bellamy spokes to a group of Warren Wilson students in honor of Earth Day and talked about the city’s plans for conserving water and public transportation… The Aaron Brewton murder trial is cranking back up after a jury convicted him two years ago but then deadlocked on a sentence… A former Tuscola High School student who just moved to West Virginia died in an ATV wreck. That’s the second Tuscola student to die in the past couple of months.
Wow, we now know that in addition to poor decision-making skills, Ms. Shelton has bad taste in men. Guess she is dumber than Jessica.
Come on Ash, the fire was started by a power line, if you want to be a cyber-journalist, you must get your facts right!
That boy at North Buncombe could care less what happens to Shelton. He lived out a fantasy and was pretty much bragging about it last night on the news.