To Albert Lea Area Schools Public Relations Coordinator Brittany Voigt and other school staff.

The Tribune launched an extended section in today’s newspaper for education news. We hope to do this every Sunday and feature information for parents about what’s taking place in the schools, as well as information about students who are doing great things. Thanks to Public Relations Coordinator Brittany Voigt and other school staff who gathered the information for these pages. We look forward to making this a regular part of the newspaper.

To Concordia Lutheran Church of Pickerel Lake.

It’s not every day a small country church in the area celebrates its 150th anniversary, but that’s exactly what’s happening this week at Concordia Lutheran Church of Pickerel Lake.

The church started in 1866 by German immigrants and moved into its current building in 1950. The church has about 270 members, with an average weekly attendance of 80.

Congratulations on the success. A special worship service and program are planned for a week from today.

To resolution in the Jacob Wetterling case.

Much has already been said about the turn of events in the Jacob Wetterling case during the last week, but we must say we are grateful that after almost 27 years of the unknown, there are finally some answers for young Jacob’s family. Though the state and nation grieve with the Wetterling family at this time, at least there are no more questions.

From our community — with ties to the Wetterling family — we extend our most heartfelt condolences.

To the early release of convicted rapist Brock Turner.

In June, 20-year-old Stanford swimmer Brock Turner was sentenced to six months after being found guilty of three felony counts: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and penetration of an unconscious person. The sentence sparked national outrage as Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky noted Turner’s age and lack of criminal history as reasons to justify what many felt was an extremely lenient sentence. Earlier this month, Turner walked out of jail after serving only half of that six month sentence. He is now on probation and has registered as a sex offender.

His sentence, for what his father described in court as “20 minutes of action,” is insulting to his victim and sexual assault survivors everywhere. Not only do victims have to come to terms with what has happened to them, in cases like these they themselves are often put on trial, which is a crime in and of itself.

We sincerely hope that cases such as this highlight the need to teach members of society about consent. The very nature of rape is that consent has not been given; a person is too young or vulnerable to give consent, or the victim did not consent and a crime was committed when fear, intimidation or violence was used to force them into submission.

Consent must be given freely, by both parties, and can be revoked at any time, by either party, for any reason. The moment the choice has been compromised, a rape has been committed.

Society must to do more than merely punish rapists, it must foster a culture in which rape at any level is viewed as unacceptable and so is victim blaming.