I am so happy that this case I wrote about back in August, looks to simply be a misunderstanding. Charges against Minnesota State University, Mankato football coach Todd Hoffner have been dropped. There are so many sad aspects to this story, but it's incredibly upsetting to know that this Mankato father of three will always be connected to the accusations of producing child pornography, after a school employee found what he/she thought was inappropriate videos of Hoffner's three children on his work cell phone.
I do not personally know any of the people involved in this situation. I still feel this school employee acted appropriately, because it's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to children. However, I do hope this family is able to recover from these allegations, and that they are stronger after going through this terrible ordeal.
ORIGINAL BLOG POST IN AUGUST 2012:
Although we are 13 hours ahead of Minnesota in Singapore, I'm doing my best to keep up with the news in Minnesota, as well as what's happening around the world. One story that has grabbed my attention, is the story of the Minnesota State University Mankato (this is my alma mater) football coach, accused of producing child pornography, after a school employee found what he/she thought to be inappropriate videos of Hoffner's three children on his work cell phone.
My initial thought after reading the story was that of disgust, and I immediately compared this case to the Jerry Sandusky case. However, when the news broke that Todd Hoffner's (the MSU football coach accused of producing child pornography) wife was planning on speaking out, I decided to give the story a second read. As of right now, Hoffner is accused of having videos of his three children playing naked, on his work phone.. According to the police report, two of videos show the couple's son and two daughters dancing around naked. A third video allegedly shows one of the daughters being woken up to go to the bathroom. The video shows the camera focusing on the back of the girl's underwear. At one point the report says that the videos show some of the kids bending over and exposing their anuses.
Personally, nothing in these videos sounds perverted or abusive. In my opinion, kids will be kids, and some kids think it is funny to bend over to show their butts to the camera. Some kids and even parents (including myself) think it is silly to have their child running around naked with a football helmet on (this is what one of the videos showed, according to the police reports). NO WHERE (that I have seen) does it say that Hoffner was making his children do these things in front of the camera, nor was he abusing them in any way. To me, this just sounds like a bunch of kids being silly, and a father capturing these private family moments on camera.
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| Melodee Hoffner speaking out Monday morning. Courtesy: Mankato Free Press |
If this is a case of a father capturing private family moments on camera, I do feel that it is his job as a parent to teach his kids that it probably isn't appropriate to bend over naked in front of a camera. But again, kids do weird things, until we teach them differently. Although I don't have video of my one-year-old running around naked wearing a football helmet, or bending over in front of the camera, I sure do have a lot of videos of her naked on my phone. Naked babies are adorable, but I'm sure there are people out there who could consider these videos that I have of my daughter, as child pornography, simply due to the fact that she is naked. Come to think of it, I DO have a video of my daughter playing naked in the back yard, and she does bend over to pick up a rock. Is this private family moment that I've captured on video, child pornography?! I also have video of my daughter, where she is naked and crawling away from me, and I've zoomed in on her little tushie because, let's be honest, baby tushies are the CUTEST! Does this make me a criminal?!
I am thankful that a school employee, after finding these videos on Hoffner's phone, stepped in and reported what she saw to the police. She could have simply said nothing. Instead, she did the right thing, by letting the police and court system decide if the children in the video were actually being exploited. She had the best interest of the children in mind, and stepped in to protect them, if in fact they were being abused in the video.
If Hoffner is innocent, his reputation is tarnished forever because of these accusations. His family will have to live with this for the rest of their lives. Imagine if your husband's mug shot was splashed across TV screens and newspapers around the world, for simply shooting videos of your kids goofing around naked (if that is all the videos actually show). HOWEVER, I have NOT seen these videos, so I don't know what the exact nature of the videos. I have only read the police report. If Hoffner in any way is directing his children to do inappropriate acts, or using these videos in some perverted way, then I will "eat my words" for even thinking about second-guessing this man. No child should EVER have to go through sexual abuse, and it is our job as parents to protect our children from predators. Until we actually see these videos that Hoffner allegedly shot, or hear more about the content, I don't think it's fair for people to immediately assume that this man is a sexual predator. I hope that for the time being, the children's mother or some other person steps in to protect them, while the facts in this case are sorted out.
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