Disgusting (emphasis mine):
According to the Springfield News-Leader, the 7th grade special ed student at Republic Middle School in Springfield, MO reported her rape in the spring of 2009. The lawsuit alleges that school officials told her they didn’t believe her, and after “multiple intimidating interrogations,” she recanted. The lawsuit also notes that a school psychological report said the girl “would forego her own needs and wishes to satisfy the request of others around so that she can be accepted,” meaning she might have been especially susceptible to pressure to change her story. But the pressure allegedly didn’t end there. The girl says she was made to write an apology note to her attacker and hand-deliver it to him. She was also expelled for the remainder of the school year.
When she came back the following year, the school allegedly refused her mother’s request for extra monitoring and did not separate her from her alleged attacker. In February 2010, the lawsuit says he “was able to hunt [her] down, drag her to the back of the school library, and again forcibly rape her.” She and her mother reported this rape to the police, and a rape kit tested positive for her attacker’s semen — he plead guilty to charges in juvenile court. But instead of taking her seriously at long last, the school suspended her, this time for “Disrespectful Conduct” and “Public Display of Affection.” Her lawsuit requests damages for medical expenses, emotional distress, and attorneys’ fees, as well as “punitive damages to deter School Officials and others from similar conduct in the future.”
…I have nothing to add. This atrocity speaks for itself.
Heavy drinking beginning now.Is there somewhere we can donate to fund an appeal or civil suit?
She should also be awarded tuition costs and transportation expenses to go to a real school.
It’s articles like these that make me want to commit violent acts toward those involved in victimizing a child. I simply do not have enough back fists or round kicks to go around in cases like these. >.>
I’d come along with you and bring my baseball bat for skull smashings! The poor girl deserves to be avenged!
*jaw drops*… the fuck?That’s… What?Like the first comment after the link says, it’s so outrageous as to be implausible.Is this for real?
Sure. Let’s blame the student, who happens to have Cognitive Disability, and it is also pretty common to blame rape victims for being raped. How pathetic that educational system is taking that routine now and preserve society’s sickness.
Here’s a quick link to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network donate page for anyone else who finds this utterly fucking reprehensible and wants to try to help rape victims: http://www.rainn.org/donate/wa…
Understatement of the century.
I saw this yesterday on Jezebel and I actually cried. One of my friends is a special ed student who has been a victim of victim bashing before (not to this level) so it really hit home. I hope she gets justice.
Totally dude. For a second I allow myself to think how it would be to have the Punisher (or someone equivalent to him) kick the *beep* out of these *beeps* at the school, who were responsible for this because of their disturbing behavior.
Gee Jen, You should look into the boy in Carmel, IN (spelling?) that was raped (with a pencil?) on the bus going to a fro from school. Apparently, he reported it and the schools did nothing. Then his rectum got infected and he told the nurse treating him. She reported it and now there is a ‘well, it was on the bus, so not on us’ or ‘well, the bus goes through a couple counties, so it is the other counties fault’. My sister told me in passing while I was home visiting.Someone blogged about it here: http://mysideofthepuddle.blogs…
Hopefully, if the charges are true, the school officials involved will serve jail time as their behavior is clearly criminal. Also, I hate to ask this, but why would her parents return her to the school? Nomatter how limited their options, anything is better than returning a burn victim to the fire!
Those “punitive damages” should be imposed with a crowbar on national television. There is no CONCEIVABLE excuse for this kind of cold-blooded conduct.Actually, I wonder if we could get any traction for a bill to require sex offender registration for officials who conspire to cover up accusations of rape or child molestation…
As someone with a developmental disability who survived Special Ed. in elementary school, I’m sorry to say I am not surprised. People need to take the time to realize that disabled people are human too, and are capable of understanding what is happening to them, and can, in fact, be sexually victimized and assaulted. It is all too common for people to think that disabled kids are “making up stories” for attention, or exaggerating, so they don’t really listen to them, until it’s too late.
sounds EXACTLY like southern Missouri………………………………….Bible Belt in ACTION
That wins my daily Fucked Up World prize, and it might just sweep the month. This is sick.
That’s it. Enough internet for today.
The part that really burns my biscuits is that we have proven that she was raped, the boy has pled guilty to criminal charges, and the school STILL has the gall to claim that her suit is “frivolous, and have no basis in fact or law”, and then ask for court fees. (I’m not even going to touch the “we have no control over third party” line, because they took control over third parties when they punished her.)These are the sorts of cases that should grant both $STUPID_AMOUNT in damages to her, as well as some people losing their jobs and/or going to jail. (Jail is sadly too much to hope for, but I would sincerely hope that the parents are rising up and demanding some heads.)
:( Jesus, poor kid.
My jaw literally hung upen for 30s. Is this really for real? In this country? Although I find myself feeling like that a lot lately.
… the… fuck.Jen, are you trying to drive me to alcoholism?
Fucking atrocious. I don’t know how those fuckers sleep at night.
I understand this sort of helpless anger in the face of grave injustice, but really- skull mashings? The rapist is 13-14 and in juvenile detention. The administrators’ careers are on the line, and are named publicly in the suit.I think this may be a case where the court system does most of its job. So you can put fantasies of vigilantism to rest. Full justice would mean that these administrators (if they acted as the suit alleges: one must maintain a higher degree of skepticism than normal when reading a lawsuit) would be held criminally negligent. But this civil suit may have to do.
Hey, I just made a connection: this is the district that banned Slaughtherhouse Five from the curriculum and the library shelves. http://bit.ly/noW5liThey also banned from the library shelves (of the high school!) a teen novel called Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Oeckler because it had the sex in it. Here is a quote from Wesley Scroggins the genius of a man who got these books removed (http://bit.ly/qSGT3b):“[Twenty Boy Summer] glorifies drunken teen parties, where teen girls lose their clothes in games of strip beer pong. In this book, drunken teens also end up on the beach, where they use their condoms to have sex. I confronted the school board with these issues at the June school board meeting. As far as I know, nothing has been done to address these issues to date. This is unacceptable, considering that most of the school board members and administrators claim to be Christian. How can Christian men and women expose children to such immorality?”They were quick to cave to this homeschooling parent. What ‘s really terrifying here is that he is a business professor at Missouri State with a PhD and everything. I’m not suggesting a direct connection between the school board’s decisions about the high school library and English curriculum and the Middle School administrators’ alleged, horrendous behavior towards a rape victim. It’s just that there seems to be a lot of stupid concentrated in one place.
That is a very genteel and PC response, calm, measured. But what if that were your child, a special needs child at that, who was raped not once, but twice and further victimized by the very people whose duty it was to protect her? What if it were the daughter of a friend? How is this a case where the court system has done “most” of its job?It seems to me that this is a case where almost all of society has failed at its duty to protect those who cannot protect themselves. The only bright light in this story is that her mother finally pursued this with the police and got some result. But the administrators with their “careers” on the line seems like weak tea punishment to me. They deserve, if guilty as charged, no less than a lengthy incarceration for their heinous behavior.
Long-time lurker and big fan…anyway, I saw this on BoingBoing and someone over there has started a petition:http://www.change.org/petition…
I’m not trying to be PC or genteel. I said “Full justice would mean that these administrators (if they acted as the suit alleges: one must maintain a higher degree of skepticism than normal when reading a lawsuit) would be held criminally negligent.” Which is the same thing in effect as “They deserve, if guilty as charged, no less than a lengthy incarceration for their heinous behavior.” Even without prison, these peoples’ lives could be destroyed as a result of this, and I welcome it. I’m not soft on this issue. But crowbars and baseball bats have no place in a just society, and it frightens when I see that outside of the usual, right-wing sources. Some of the comments here remind me a bit of the stuff gun-nuts were saying about the London rioters. Even if that is your reaction, you should check it. It takes gets us nowhere.
So at this stage it is a lawsuit? Meaning the accused is innocent until found guilty? Be careful about jumping to conclusions based off media reports of lawsuits.Granted, if true, it is horrendous. But we do not know if it is true yet or what the accused’s story is.
Read the story. The rapist has been dealt with in juvenile court. They matched his DNA with semen found on her. This is a lawsuit against the school that not only failed to protect her the first time, but tortured her by forcing her to recant her story AND give an apology letter to her rapist. And then he raped her again.
“The head of the snake”? Might be worthwhile.
Carmel isn’t the only Indiana school to let this kind of thing happen. Last November a girl was raped in a Muncie, IN high school. School officials failed to report it to police, and this is despite the fact that they had off-duty officers on campus. Instead of reporting the crime, they kept the girl in the school office, did nothing to secure the crime scene, and allowed her attacker to go home–actions which facilitated the destruction of evidence.http://www.thestarpress.com/ar…
Jen, you need a “I want to punch somebody the f*** out” button on your blog. The “Like/Don’t Like” buttons do little justice to my emotions of rage I feel right now.
These school officials deserve more than to be hit with a lawsuit. They should be charged as accessories to the crime.
As much as I think your second suggestion has merit, that could backfire. The list stands to lose credibility if people can wind up on it for things they didn’t do. Negligence and wilful obstruction are already punishable, best leave it at that.
A transcript of my statements made while reading this article:What?What.What?!WHAT?!*INCOHERENT RAGE*”Public Display of Affection”? WHAT? WHAT?!I won’t bother transcribing the next sentence, in which I think I used the word ‘fuck,’ and variations thereof, more times than is grammatically possible in one sentence.
I’m not surprised either. Friends with kids having special needs have told me too many horror stories like this. Too often, they’re viewed as problem students by teachers or administrators that would like any excuse to remove them from the system. It’s hard enough to avoid a bully when the authorities don’t object to your presence, especially when the bullies pick up on this.
I have something to add (not the first, but hey). That they chose those particular “charges” to suspend her – “disrespectful conduct” and PDA – says a huge amount not only about them, but about people in authority, and who, in a democratic society, should be allowed to hold power over others.
The school should be sued into oblivion, the administrators should be sued into oblivion, and then be tried not only for neglect but as accomplices to rape and thrown in jail for as long as they can possibly pile charges up for.
I’s a bugger what earns a livin’ burning villages and molesting the chickens, and even I has an appalled.
Well this would have predated the complaints about the books. But this area is very unenlightened; which, if you come to Skepticon you can find out for yourself. Hell, I got hatemail for the campus protest of Scroggins and the genius lawyer (who occasionally lies about Constitutional law on the 700 Club) couldn’t even spell my first name correctly. Though, don’t be too surprised that business colleges are full of idiots. There was a study that came out in the Chronicle of Higher Ed last spring that documented they don’t learn any real skills in college. And, the people who do the worst on the GMAT are management majors. But, yeah, sexual and physical abuse of children is really an under-reported problem in the Ozarks. There’s also high incidents of poverty. And, really the only help out there is religiously oriented, and strictly so in some cases. Cannot wait to flee this town.
The list has already lost credibility because people can get on it for public urination, having consensual sex with minors while a minor of the same or similar age, and other crimes that harm no one and may not even be sexual. Since it’s intended to warn society about actual MONSTERS in order to help them protect themselves, this is far more consistent with the list’s purpose.
You really don’t see a moral difference between desperate people lashing out, and this kind of premeditated inhumanity?
Yes. I do see a difference. But it doesn’t make “lashing out” the right thing. To re-iterate, prison would be appropriate, but it won’t happen. I’ll take a destroyed reputation and names dragged through the mud, not violence. I’m such a fucking treehugger, I know.
That’s too bad. And I am coming out to SkeptiCon. I live in Tulsa, OK, so I can’t really brag about bring part of enlightened region. But things do seem tougher in the smaller towns and rural areas.
Shocked, but not as surprised as I’d like to be. Not entirely atypical of fairly common attitudes to children with special educational needs on both sides of the Atlantic :(
“were saying about the London rioters”? A lot of them still are. And the out-of-guideline sentences, and authoritarian knee-jerk/opportunist moves by the government… there are practical reasons that balanced, measured responses are good.
School psychologist:”…would forego her own needs and wishes to satisfy the request of others around so that she can be accepted,” –that indicates she would give consent to anyone to have sex then when her parents found out would say she was raped to satisfy their view….in essence LIE to say she was raped make her parents happy no matter who else’s life she ruins.
Are you fucking serious?
I do. Slip something into my drink that can give me some sort of legal lenancy and point me in the right derection. But there will be piles of dead bodies.
No see, a kid got fucking raped. A special needs kid. In school. Then called a liar expelled forced to a appolged raped again, proved she was raped and punished. And these Douche-bags just lose their jobs or go to jail for a bit. See this is the sort of shit that makes me look at our society and say “Just society?” Where what the fuck is this? I see no justice in this?Honestly it’s shit like this that makes me want to go Frank Castle on on these bastards.Or Atleast Frank millers Version of Batman
…I think I just lost all faith in humanity for ever.
All this talk about crowbars and fucking Batman is about how to make us, the poor people who feel shitty reading about this stuff, feel better. So let’s so we devolve into an “eye-for-an-eye” society, do think there are going to be fewer rapes? Of course not. How many wives and sisters and daughters and girlfriends and mothers of people who are perceived as having gotten away with something will get raped if we base our justice purely on satisfaction for the aggrieved? Or women who actually do something evil themselves: I’m pretty sure rape would be an early avenue for people who would apply your line of thinking to Casey Anthony, or to the two women named in this lawsuit. You’re a delusional idiot. If educating, spreading information, protesting, prosecuting, and legislating are too tedious for you, we don’t need your help. Go back to your overrated 80s comics.
Desperate people “lashing out”? You mean people premeditating skull crushing on a blog?
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