I say get something smaller and cheaper, because most people drop their first bike at some point in time, somehow, even if it's just a parking lot incident, it's still bad.
The first time he drops his cheap cbr 600 or whatever, he will really happy he didn't do it to a nicer bike that cost him much more money. The side fairings on the the red RC's are about $500 each and the front is about $350 (don't quote me it's pretty close) the tail is about $250, so one tip over can cost you well over $1000 especially if you get the tank (about $550). Add about $100 to each of those prices for the dealership's prices too. Oh, and the black fairings are about 15% cheaper for some reason.
Tell him to go out and get a kawasaki ninja 250, they are only about $3000 brand new, and they just redesigned them, so nobody will want the older body style, you could probably get one that's a few years old for under $2000 easy. Then he can learn on that, ride it for a year or whatever, and turn around and sell it without loosing too much money, if any. (He can pretty much do the same with any used 600 too, but it'll be a little more money, and closer in weight and power to the RC or any other bike bike)