In an age when honor students get suspended because a steak knife or cap gun is found in their car, a group of football players at Mepham High School (NY) can get away with sexually attacking three younger teammates, and the school does virtually nothing until the press finds out about it. Michele of A Small Victory has the entire story at her site, and she has inside information on it because she's local to that area.
The three attacks took place at a football camp in Pennsylvania. There were apparently three separate attacks of sodomy, three attackers and three witnesses, all of whom threatened the victims with further violence if they told anyone. One victim, though, didn't stop bleeding for days afterward and was forced to tell his mother. I assume this was the same victim who required surgery to correct the damage.
The players at the camp knew about the attacks, but did not tell the coaches. Everyone was suffering under a code of silence meant to protect the attackers and witnesses and intimidate the victims and their families. When the story finally made the national news on Sept. 16th, the attackers had not even been suspended because a written statement from witnesses or victims had not been obtained.
Cap gun in your car? You're out, no excuses, no complaining.
Brutally sodomize younger teammates? Hey, as long as nobody signs anything, the school will sit on its hands.
This would be enough to enrage anyone, but Michele has more:
The media gets a hold of the story and all hell breaks loose. Adults become defensive. School officials feign horror. The students of the school become divided, with some saying - remaining anonymous in interviews - that the participants should be expelled, while the cheerleaders and football players rally 'round the molesters.
The school board holds a meeting and votes unanimously to cancel the football season.
And that leads us up to two days ago, when an impromptu protest was held at the school by students. Kids walked out of class and marched on to the football field, screaming out cheers in some warped version of a pep rally.
Oh, it wasn't all the kids. It was just the football players, the cheerleaders and a few stragglers who thought it was a good way to get out of class.
Michele is sickened by the support being shown for a corrupt group of teammates, and understands completely why canceling the football season is necessary. The team knew about brutal sexual assaults and did not tell the coaches. If the football players don't understand the concept of culpability in the eyes of the law, now's a good time for them to start.
Michele is astounded, and more than a little nauseated:
The loud protestations of those who are fuming at the school board makes you wonder who they think the victims of this whole thing are? Do they honestly think they have been wronged? What kind of homes do these people grow up in that they have the audacity and the smugness to prance around like they have been wronged when there are three boys - school mates of theirs - who have been basically raped by their fellow students?...
Watch this video of the protests. The parents of every single one of those boys and girls should be ashamed. Maybe when criminal charges are finally filed, these self-centered, spoiled brats who are acting like this is all a big joy ride to notoriety will wise up and realize the gravity of the situation...
Do I need to tell you why those statements make me sick?
It gets worse; one of the players who is accused of participating in the sexual assaults had been warned by school officials before the camp not to "harass" any other teammates. Michele neatly outlines the various groups who are to blame:
The fault for this whole episode begins with the parents of the accused players, for raising kids who think that they have the right to do this to people; the attackers themselves; the kids who watched and said nothing; the kids who found out later, knowing who the attackers were, and still said nothing; and the school for allowing a serious discipline problem to go unchecked and permitting this previously suspended football player to go on a school-sanctioned trip.
In other words, the fact that the school might have known about the brutality of one player beforehand doesn't place the fault of this all on the school. The attackers - and the witnesses - should face severe legal consequences. Michele fears a round of "Boys will be boys" defenses in court. I fear she's right.
By the way, the press releases for Mepham High stop at September 5th. Imagine that.
Posted by kswygert at September 22, 2003 06:12 PM
