Wait, so it's okay to rape someone if you're a high-school athlete?

I'm sure everyone knows the story by now. 16 year old girl is raped by some teen athletes. They facebook it and tweet it and generally act like they're princes of the universe for assaulting a young woman. They are given bullshit sentences by a piss-ass judge. Their coach defends them, and so does the town -- who blame the girl who got raped for ruining their high school team. Media laments the loss of "potential" and how these boy's lives are ruined.

Fuck those guys. They're rapists. Fuck that coach. What a rotten douche. Fuck that town. When did sports become more important than morality? (Oh right, that's been the status quo in the States for years!!)

This is where the slow and insidious process of feeling sympathetic for scumbag criminals has led us.

Discuss??

http://bellejarblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/i-am-not-your-wife-sister-or-daughter/

http://rantagainsttherandom.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/so-youre-tired-of-hearing-about-rape-culture/

I've read about it, it's truly disgusting. If they were 18 of course the punishment would be more severe. Still, appalling that the town prides more in their football than morals. I know if I were that girl I would want to move out of that town as soon as possible.

A civilized society would've strung them up.

The compiled tweets/video/social activity on the second link is sickening. Times like these I almost give up on humanity.

It's actually surprising those two were found guilty at all considering how corrupt that city is and how much it bends over backwards for its high school football team.

Considering the amount of undeniable evidence, this was probably the least the court could do to them without causing an even bigger national uproar. The small town would get away with it, but it would paint an even worse picture on them in the eyes of everyone else. Either way, it's all fucked up.

It's the sports and hero culture.

Sports players in school are looked up as heroes and worshipped.

Surely heroes couldn't had done anything wrong.

Furthermore, school districts depends on sports programs to bring in money and revenue.

They can't let anything tarnish their sports programs so everyone from the top down is working together to cover things up.

I remember when I went to High School the jocks were always picking and bullying other students who were not in any sports programs.

Then if you go to the Principal or Vice Principal Office to complain, you are the one who gets in trouble, not the jocks even if there is plenty of evidence and witnesses to back up your claim.

I'll never understand that mentality. In they end they're just games, being able to throw a ball shouldn't make you a saint.

Python wrote:

I'll never understand that mentality. In they end they're just games, being able to throw a ball shouldn't make you a saint.

Especially if something like this happened here in Texas.

They take their Football very seriously here in Texas.

It's very sacred!

Nothing else matter!

Like I am pretty sure if I murdered somone, took pictures, and posted them to Facebook, no one would be bemoaning how unfortunate I was.

Python wrote:

I'll never understand that mentality. In they end they're just games, being able to throw a ball shouldn't make you a saint.

It's heightened in Steubenville where a) as a dying Rust Belt city, its elite football program is all it has, and b) the mob, or whatever it is going on there, runs the town.

I read about this in the paper earlier today. I was horrified when one of the accused said that the conviction had ruined his life, as if he was the victim all along.

Same shit, different town: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/torrington-steubenville-rape-assault-victim-twitter-163530296.html

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

I read about this in the paper earlier today. I was horrified when one of the accused said that the conviction had ruined his life, as if he was the victim all along.

A very interseting perspective he must have learned from somebody being his parents or school. The society around him seems to empower him in this view which is also a terrifying prospect for the future.

I'm not so sure about that. It's something I've noticed in common with a lot of teenagers: they seem to think the world owes them something simply because they live in it. This is just taking that to an extreme - if you get yourself in trouble, someone will come and get you out of it with no consequences.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

I'm not so sure about that. It's something I've noticed in common with a lot of teenagers: they seem to think the world owes them something simply because they live in it. This is just taking that to an extreme - if you get yourself in trouble, someone will come and get you out of it with no consequences.

I did work with teenagers and while it is true that they do not always recognise the consequences of their behaviour they tend to recognise good and bad, and even when they crossed the line on that subject. Okay they do blame it on somebody else (as adults do!) but rape is kinda hard to blame on somebody else?

Well, I only have the quote on paper. I have no idea of the boy's mood at the time. Perhaps he was saying "my life is ruined" as a simple statement of fact - but given the other reactions that have been discussed in this thread, it would not surprise me if it was a complaint rather than an acknowledgement of wrongdoing, as if he expected to be acquitted simply because he can play football.

Perhaps the boy is not to blame for his reaction. I haven't encountered it before, but I have heard of it: an educaton where talented sports players are given a certain leeway in their behaviour because they are talented. A lot of schools require that their players maintain a minimum grade in order to keep playing, but I've heard of teachers being encouraged to be generous in their marking so that those students can continue to play. If what Jack Wade says about this town being football-mad is true, then it would not surprise me if the students were given a generous allowance in terms of their behaviour and their marks.

The point seems to be that these boys did not or could not identify what they were doing (fingering an unconscious girl) as rape. Not only that, but neither did any of the young men who witnessed the act. Which does lead me to question the values of their adult role models and teachers.