At the sentencing hearing Friday for well-known music instructor Donald Rasely, his attorney, Mike Zunder, painted his client as a victim also. Zunder said, "Mr. Rasely has suffered, too." The lawyer said his client's real sentence is his "loss of livelihood...family, friends and inability to remain in this community."

Zunder reminded the court that Rasely "has taken responsibility for what he has done."

Rasely, in fact, cannot be seen as a victim in the molestation of a teenaged boy for which he pleaded guilty after first repeatedly denying his guilt. He is no more a victim than Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who admitted guilt in an illegal dogfighting operation and who was suspended by the NFL indefinitely, also on Friday.

However, some people have implied that Vick should be classified as a victim, just like there are people here who would put Rasely in that category.

But for most people, it's hard to feel sorry for someone who molests children, just like it is hard to feel sorry for someone who has bankrolled dogfights and been involved in killing dogs deemed poor fighters. Just as Vick should have been smart enough to steer clear of his repulsive operation, so too should Rasely have been smart enough not to become involved with one of his students.

Rasely merits no sympathy for the punishment that has been meted out — punishment that some people believe was too lenient — just as Vick deserves no sympathy over the fact that his multimillion-dollar professional football career is over, at least for a couple of years.

Vick should never be allowed to play professional football again. Meanwhile, Rasely's sentence justifiably should have stipulated, but didn't because stipulations are not allowed to extend beyond the time frame of a sentence, that he never again would be permitted to have any contact, including music lessons, with a minor without adult supervision.

One of the terms of Rasely's sentence is that for eight years he will not be permitted to have unsupervised contact with a minor.

It cannot go unnoticed that the Rasely case put his friends and associates in the arts community in a difficult and uncomfortable position.

The victim's mother, in a statement to the court at the Rasely sentencing hearing, said there are many people in the community who continue to support Rasely and have made the life of the teen victim as well as his family more difficult with resentment and inappropriate comments.

If the public perceives that as originating in the arts community, that could mean more damage to the arts than Rasely's arrest and guilty plea.

Rasely's actions with his student and the court proceedings should block him from returning to prominence in the arts community.

Rasely is an admitted child sexual abuser. With his court plea, there is no doubt about his guilt.

Like Vick, he is the person solely responsible for his current fate, and his lawyer shouldn't have tried to allude to Rasely as the victim that he really is not.