Moar and Moar and Moar
Yeah I heard about this. Disgusting.
Should it be mandatory? It should be bloody common sense. Even if it was mandatory it's not like the school was going to do it in the first place. Wouldn't change a thing. So the real question becomes, how do you stop stuff like this from happening in the future?
My suggestion is on a federal level is create a trained task force designed to come in to communities and investigate cases of widespread social bullying* and possibly to do something about it. Get the people out of power who are not doing their jobs to protect this girl. (Or likewise make them pay to relocate her and her family to somewhere not..vile.)
- I'm not trying to topic shift. This case reads to me as a very extreme but at the same time textbook case of modern social bullying. This girl/her family is probably the target for much of the community.
Gunpla is amazing!
What. The. Fuck.
I changed accounts.
And people wonder why such a large number of rapes go unreported. 
It's always a great sign when the first question asked of a rape victim reporting the crime is essentially, "Why didn't you stop him?"
BTW, I need to check this, but I'm 99% certain this is the same school district that banned Slaughterhouse Five and The Catcher in the Rye from being included in High School classes because they are profane and subversive.
Edit: Apparently the second book was Twenty Boy Summer.
"Of the members of the school board who voted on the issue last Monday, according to UPI, only one — Melissa Duvall — had actually read either of the books in question."
Sounds like the education system in Donnie Darko.
edited 18th Aug '11 1:15:52 PM by ForlornDreamer
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Public schools were already cesspools of injustice; unpunished bullying already made that clear. This is just yet another example.
I say "fuck it." Give up on public schools in the United States and teach by distance education from now on.
"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart
Statistical Unlikeliness
I wonder if the legal system has requires a mandatory soul destruction (or a Dementor Kiss) to become a lawyer. That's the only logical explanation do a defense saying "It's her own fault if she got raped".
I don't want to shift topics, but I really think our countries should pass a law saying that if a lawyer lied during a trial, he or she will be submitted to the same penalty as the guilty party. Worked in Farscape, why not in the real world?
edited 19th Aug '11 11:38:31 PM by RufusShinra
As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.
Raven Wilder
Well, theoretically, if someone put cow pheromones all over their crotch then bent over naked in front of an agitated bull, the ensuing bestial rape could be considered their fault.
"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Which only goes to show how absurd the "she should have stopped him" arguments are in comparison.
(Sorry for the necro.)
Yes, I agree, the officials responsible from such horror don't need be fired but jailed and blacklisted - the lawyers saying the victim didn't do enough to protect herself need bisbarment for failing tests of basic humanity.
The case has been settled in December 2011 under conditions of confidentiality; the school board (not the officials) agreed to pay
- $122,315 and medical and legal cost to the victim and her family;
- $62,685 to the girl's attorney
I still wonder who were the parents of the rapist.
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
You really have to wonder what it takes to be a defense attorney. For all the heroic defenses of victims of circumstance, there are cases that force you to become a victim-blamer and try to weasel money out of a girl who actually got raped (that part's not in dispute) for daring to stand up to the school to allow it to happen.
Especially since they forced her to hand an apology letter to her rapist.
Indiana Solo
Lawyers are required to fight a case to the best of their abilities. at times, that results in that kind of crap.
Theres a reason they have the reputation they do.
I'm baaaaaaack
I'm bringing this up from a rather horrifying news article
linked to me on another forum.
In its written response, the school district denies all allegations in the suit and calls the claims frivolous.
The suit, filed July 5, alleges when the girl — a special education student — told officials about the harassment, assault and rape that occurred during the 2008-09 school year, they told her they did not believe her. She recanted.
The suit also alleges that, without seeking her mother’s permission, school officials forced the girl to write a letter of apology to the boy and personally deliver it to him. She was then expelled for the rest of the 2008-2009 school year and referred to juvenile authorities for filing a false report.
“School Officials, although mandatory reporters under Missouri’s Child Abuse Reporting Law, failed to report [the girl’s] complaints to the Division of Family Services or to Greene County Juvenile Authorities,” the suit says.
In 2009-10, the girl was allowed back in school, and the boy continued to harass and assault her, the suit says. She did not tell school officials because she was afraid she would be accused of lying and kicked out of school.
In February 2010, the boy allegedly forcibly raped the girl again, this time in the back of the school library. While school officials allegedly expressed skepticism of the girl, her mother took her to the Child Advocacy Center and an exam showed a sexual assault had occurred. DNA in semen found on the girl matched the DNA of the boy she accused, the suit says.
The boy was taken into custody in Juvenile Court and pleaded guilty to charges, the suit says. The specific charges are not stated in the suit.
“School Officials acted recklessly in conscious disregard of and with deliberate indifference to the risk of [the girl’s] safety by failing to conduct an investigation into her allegations of rape and sexual assault, by suspending her from school, and by failing to provide her with any protection from her rapist,” the suit says. The suit alleges that when school officials interviewed the girl in 2008-09, they failed to even look at her own school file, which included a psychological report “which clearly indicated that [the girl] was conflict adverse, behaviorally passive and ‘would forego her own needs and wishes to satisfy the request of others around so she can be accepted.’”
The 23-page suit was filed July 5 and only identifies the girl, her mother, and the boy by initials. The girl is represented by attorney Doug Harpool. The suit seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages.
Defendants specifically named in the suit are the Republic School District, Superintendent Vern Minor, middle school Principal Patricia Mithelavage, counselor Joni Ragain, and school resource officer Robert Duncan.
The school district’s 19-page response was filed July 29.
“Plaintiff’s claims against the District are frivolous, and have no basis in fact or law” said the response, written by the school district’s lawyers Celynda Brasher and Michelle Basi. “Therefore, the District Defendants are entitled to an award of their reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.”
The girl failed and neglected to use reasonable means to protect her self, the response says. Any damages the girl may have sustained, “were as a result of the negligence, carelessness, or conduct of third parties over whom the District Defendants had neither control nor the right to control,” according to the school district response.
So, how should schools (or doctors, counselors, etc) be handling mandatory reporting? I've heard complaints about the system, that it bogs down with mandatory reports in situations where the adults involved don't believe there is any sort of abuse or neglect, but at the same time, clearer guidelines would have protected this girl from both being raped a second time, and possibly from being falsely expelled from her school in the middle of the school year.
edited 18th Aug '11 10:04:34 AM by BlueNinja0
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw