It seems like every time I pick up a newspaper these days, including The Herald, pages are filled with stories about child molestation, sexual perversion, and other bizarre stories that are painful to read but need to be printed.

Locally, The Herald carried a story on the front page Saturday about a former area music teacher in Grove City and stage manager at Westminster College who was charged with secretly filming sex acts by four boys at a camp north of New York City where he was the camp counselor. Remember when you could send your kids to camp and feel confident about their safety and their guidance?

Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a story about a well-respected Mount Lebanon High School teacher and tennis coach who police said solicited an undercover agent who was posing as a 14-year-old girl online. It’s another of these sad, sad stories.

In my 34 years at The Herald, it’s my guess we have had more of these kinds of stories in the last three years than in my first 31. Theories abound, but I’ve got one and I’m sticking to it. Put technology at the top of the list.

I think that most of these perversions have been a part of our society for years, but before the Internet, people with such problems didn’t have such an open opportunity. VCRs gave owners access to all kinds of XXX-rated films, and the advent of Internet online chats and other sexually-explicit Web sites have pushed the doors wide open.

With that increased activity has come more sting operations and other investigations by police, attempts at more control by concerned parents, and more willingness by society to bring these psychos to justice.

Readers and other callers ask me why we’re “obsessed” with reporting such news. First off, I don’t think we’re the ones who are obsessed. Newspapers shouldn’t sweep such a disturbing problem under the carpet, especially when it involves young children.

The problem won’t disappear, as some seem to think, if newspapers quit publishing such stories. Raising awareness of the severity and frequency of it is a major step in the right direction.

Jones book signing is Thursday

Retired Col. Donald Jones came to my office at The Herald last week bearing a gift — a signed copy of his book “The Path That Was Set for Me,” published locally by Green Street Press of Hermitage.

I had given the final edit to his manuscript during the winter and early spring, and it’s fascinating to see the final product.

It’s a transformation of raw text into book format, complete with photos, index, and a host of other helpful appendices.

The nearly 300-page book, which sells for $20, is an inspirational recap of the colonel’s exemplary life, which started in the coal mines of Indiana, Pa. It retraces his journey, including his high school days after moving to Farrell, his acceptance of a basketball scholarship to Niagara University, his decorated 28-year Army career as a Green Beret, and his successful venture into private industry after retiring from the military.

After chatting a little about his book, we headed for lunch, where we reminisced about Farrell, about all of the work that he had channeled into The Path, and his upcoming Special Forces reunion in Las Vegas, where the book should be a big hit.

Locally, he’s having a book signing at Farrell Community Center’s Minority Health Room on Thursday. If you can’t make it to the signing, but are interested in the colonel’s book, you can call him at 724-662-0606 or 407-461-9048, or contact him via e-mail at donjones12@aol.com