It is difficult enough, I think anyone can realize this, when we put another individual up on a pedestal, especially a moral pedestal and they “fall off of it”. I personally can name two times in my life where I have thought only the highest of an individual, I thought they were the most impressive person I had met and ended up disappointing me. But this is not about this other person, this is about a person in general, a pedestal in general if you will.

Anyone that is local to the Fort Collins area that has occasionally read the newspaper has seen articles about the Rocky Mountain High School counselor, Brad Boda, that was being investigated for more than a handful of child molestation charges. The reason I bring this to light now more than six months after this information appeared in the newspaper is mainly because of the recent sentencing that occurred due to these charges. Brad Boda was sentenced Thursday, July 1st, 2010 for 20 years “after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual abuse on a child,” according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

But this posting is not about whether Brad Boda did this, did not do this, should have been sentenced for 20 years, or any other numerable questions that may surface. The reason I am writing now is to think about should I personally have held someone like Brad Boda on a pedestal, a moral pedestal, in particular. The reason I am stressing the idea of the moral pedestal is because I think there are many different kinds of pedestals, but in my own mind the moral is the strongest and the most heart breaking when someone “falls off of it”.

I was devastated when I heard the news of Brad Boda being investigated under allegations of child abuse/molestation and my family as a whole was crushed to think that such allegations would come up or that Brad Boda would have done such things. The most devastating part though, like I said is not the allegations (whether he is truly guilty or not - this being besides the point of what he pleaded guilty to or not), but the image of a whole of this individual. Brad Boda was my high school counselor, not by random assignment, but by choice. I wanted Brad Boda to be my counselor after meeting him my sophomore year and I switched from my counselor to him. He was always there for my to talk to and he always listened. I am not going to go in to detail of all the things that Brad Boda helped me work through and supported me in, but I just want to make it clear that he helped me in so many ways and I looked up to him with nothing, but respect and trust. Brad Boda was one of the deciding factors in my life for why I decided I wanted to be a counselor, that I wanted to help others for the rest of my life.

The point I am at now, is trying to work through that pedestal issue, that I have been addressing this whole time. I put Brad Boda up on a pedestal and he “fell off of it” and my question is now what??? What does one do when someone they have that complete trust and faith in disappoints you? When in a sense they fall from the good sense of grace that they were once held to in your eyes? Where do I go from now, it made me question my own life and my career goals? All I can think is that I have to prove him to be wrong, I have to prove this man that fell from the pedestal I held him up on and become a counselor that knows their moral obligations, that can be held to the highest of the moral code of ethics, one that does not stray in such a way as to make anyone question whether I too have fallen.