ACADEMY COMMANDANT CHARGED WITH SEX CRIME

LEXINGTON, Mo. (AP) - The commandant of cadets at Wentworth Military Academy was fired Wednesday a day after he was charged with using the Internet to arrange a sexual encounter with a minor, school officials said.

Michael A. Kirby, 49, of Lexington, was charged Tuesday in Livingston County Associate Circuit Court with attempted statutory rape in the first degree and attempted statutory sodomy in the first degree.

He had been responsible for the discipline of cadets before he was fired Wednesday, said Maj. Gen. John H. Little, superintendent of the private coeducational military academy in Lexington.

Livingston County sheriff Steve Cox said a deputy posing as a 13-year-old girl in an Internet chat room received unsolicited messages from a person who identified himself as a 45-year-old male �teacher� and coach from Lafayette County.

Between June 18 and Monday, Kirby allegedly sent e-mails and live images and made arrangements to come to Chillicothe to have sexual intercourse and sodomy with the girl. He checked into a motel room Tuesday and was arrested when he went to the fast-food restaurant where he allegedly had arranged to meet the girl, Cox said.

That was in the paper today. I started to cry when I read that. Why? Because Mike Kirby is Corey's step-dad. Corey had went to that Military Academy a few years ago too. That just scares me the fact that it was COREY's step-dad.

I guess I still care about Corey some, at least as a friend.