HS cheerleader kicked off squad for refusing to cheer for her rapist

[Eisa]

You do realize criminals in real life ARE denied basic rights, don't you? Like "the right to vote." Or the right to own a gun. No one's even advocating he's completely kicked out of the public education system. Just expelled and moved to a DIFFERENT SCHOOL.

Unless he's oh so special just because he has an ounce of athletic talent. I mean, it's not like she has any, being a cheerleader and all. It's not like it will bother her at all to see the guy who raped and assaulted her every day. Won't send her into flashbacks, crying, intrusive memories and thoughts, panic attacks, avoidance, and every other symptom of PTSD there is. Of course not.

If you commit a crime, yes, it DOES affect you at school. Like here, if you have a drug charge, you go to the alternative school. Sorry. It doesn't matter if you're a fucking athlete.

And a drug charge is less serious to me than fucking assault. And rape.

[Greenday]

So criminals should be denied basic rights? Nobody who ever commits a crime should be allowed an education. That will do nothing to stop crime, would make it worse actually, but darn it, punishment is about making people uninvolved with the case happy.

In fact maybe we should execute anybody who ever breaks the law. They can't function in society and apparently never will so why should they live, right?

As for being kicked off the team, I agree that probably should have happened. However I don't know the rules the school has so maybe there is no precedent to do so. Like I've said, I don't like making up rules on the spot or violating existing rules just because people don't think a person was punished enough. If you're mad get mad at the DA for cutting a deal

You must not of read what you quoted. I didn't see a thing about not being able to get an education. Just not a completely free education.

[Greenday]

So you only think people with enough money get a chance to redeem themselves. Good to know that money is the important thing to you not the person's sense of redemption or wanting to improve themselves.

Getting your GED isn't that expensive. Or as someone else mentioned, he should be forced to go to a new school. The only reason he isn't labeled a sex offender is because of the plea bargin.

[Eisa]

Actually yeah, a lot of schools DO have those kind of rules. Even if you aren't expelled, you can be forced to go to a different school.

I think our whole justice system needs an overhaul. Because until then, "rape is nothing" in a majority of cases, the offenders get off nearly or entirely scot-free, and the victims survivors are the ones who are blamed and ridiculed.

If you don't see something wrong with that....then I don't think I have anything else to say, do I.

[blas87]

I already explained it before, but you lose certain rights and privileges when you commit crimes. A lot of crimes, you lose your right to vote or have a gun. It's part of it. It's not overly punishing someone or taking away their rights, it's proper punishment for what they have done.

I don't like it when people's hearts bleed for the wrong person. That girl has a lot of rough times ahead of her, in her recovery from the rape. I hope she is brave and resilient and is able to go back to who she was before the rape and be the best she can be at everything she does. Let your heart bleed for her and the trauma she was put under, and the fact that her life will never be the same, or will take a long time to go back to normal. Who cares about the slimeball who couldn't take no for an answer? His rights and safety and comfort should not trump over hers, since he was the one who broke the law.

[Eisa]

I already explained it before, but you lose certain rights and privileges when you commit crimes. A lot of crimes, you lose your right to vote or have a gun. It's part of it. It's not overly punishing someone or taking away their rights, it's proper punishment for what they have done.

I don't like it when people's hearts bleed for the wrong person. That girl has a lot of rough times ahead of her, in her recovery from the rape. I hope she is brave and resilient and is able to go back to who she was before the rape and be the best she can be at everything she does. Let your heart bleed for her and the trauma she was put under, and the fact that her life will never be the same, or will take a long time to go back to normal. Who cares about the slimeball who couldn't take no for an answer? His rights and safety and comfort should not trump over hers, since he was the one who broke the law.

EXACTLY. Fucking exactly.

And again, no one is even saying that he should live a life of squalor and destitution. Just MOVE TO A DIFFERENT SCHOOL. If you do shitty things in school, you get kicked off athletic teams and moved or expelled. Why exactly is it different if you commit a felony? And not only a felony, but a felony against ANOTHER STUDENT?

[Plaidman]

If you do shitty things in school, you get kicked off athletic teams and moved or expelled. Why exactly is it different if you commit a felony? And not only a felony, but a felony against ANOTHER STUDENT?

Your all forgetting. He was in sports. Anyone in sports means automatically untouchable.

They can rape who they want, beat who they want, cheat what they want, and the only ones that get in trouble are their victims. For DARING to say no, or standing up for yourself against them.

Bullies are horrible in all ways. The sports bullies are even worst because they are the Gods of the school and they know it. They beat you up in class, teacher laughs and tells you to shrug it off. You stand up to them, your expelled.

[Eisa]

^Sadly, that's pretty much true. There were some real assholes at my high school, but...they were athletes. AND our athletes were actually good [instead of here at my uni, where they suck ass ]...nothing ever happened to them. I remember my AP Bio teacher basically just gave them A's and let us sweat our asses off trying to come up to his impossible standards.

I do think that if one of them had been convicted of assault or rape, though, they would have been kicked off the team and forced to change schools.

I hope.

[Then again my high school failed at a lot of things. My sister was being stalked by someone and his group of friends...she went to the resource officer and he basically told her she was asking for it. By...being a girl, I guess? One of the guy's friends even lived in our neighborhood and knew where we lived. ]

[Racket_Man]

^Sadly, that's pretty much true. There were some real assholes at my high school, but...they were athletes. AND our athletes were actually good [instead of here at my uni, where they suck ass ]...nothing ever happened to them. I remember my AP Bio teacher basically just gave them A's and let us sweat our asses off trying to come up to his impossible standards.

I do think that if one of them had been convicted of assault or rape, though, they would have been kicked off the team and forced to change schools.

I hope.

[Then again my high school failed at a lot of things. My sister was being stalked by someone and his group of friends...she went to the resource officer and he basically told her she was asking for it. By...being a girl, I guess? One of the guy's friends even lived in our neighborhood and knew where we lived. ]

let us take this one or two or three steps further. move from HS to College then onto professional sports.

first of all the atheletes are "taught" from an early age (esp if they have some talent) that they are "special" and deserve "special treatment". this can range from getting detentions wiped out, any disciplinary actions quashed, grades "fixed" (so they can play foo'ball), being held to a very low standard of behavior (in school and out), being the hyped up testosterone males they are having bullying issues with fellow students, are led to believe they can have anything they want (mostly girls) and becasue of their "jock status" can generally get away with murder. depending on the school district size and location, these "jocks" can be "above the law" cause the cops are rabid supporters of the local team. heavy drinking parties and illegal drug use can be rampent but everyone seems to "look the other way" and excuses their behavior as "boys will be boys". becasue of their status women are just there for the picking (read forcing)

Now that HS is finished they go on to college and are "introduced" to other venues of behavior. add in alumi supporters (who tend to highly support and spend laviciously on their alma mater). add in bunches of $$$$$ and national TV and even MORE rabid support and the women and the lifestyle. again they feel they are above the law and things tend to be "overlooked" or brushed aside.

now move on to professional level. now you have a WHOLE city with more groupies lots and LOTS OF $$$$$$'s (most of the time more money than ANY of them have ever dreamed about, handlers, entroages, advisors, coaches, fellow teammates, etc. they are still held to a lower standard than the rest of us.

it all starts with that one infraction waaayyyy back in HS (or even in grade school) that "teaches them" they can and will get away with it and will not suffer the "normal" consequences the rest us suffer.

Rape a woman have a high powered lawyer take care of it.

get caught driving drunk, have the team lean on the courts AND have the high priced lawyer in on it.

get caught after shooting someone. slap on the wrist with 1000 hours of community service

[Andara Bledin]

I did a little digging.

Her attacker wasn't actually indicted until 2009, at which point he was expelled. And he was suspended pending the court's first dismissal, as well. So any calls regarding him not being punished by the school are incorrect. This is a case of the failure of the court system, not the school, when they refused to indict when the charges were first brought.

And there is no chance it was "rape after the fact," either. The door to the room she had been in appears to have been locked; other partiers who heard her cries for them to stop banged on the door and couldn't get it open before her attackers had time to escape out a bathroom window and she was found crying under a pool table, disrobed from the waist down. If it had been consensual, there would have been no cries to respond to, and they would have had no reason to flee the scene.

ABC News Article

Article at CHRON.com

^-.-^

[Eisa]

Was she ever put back on the cheerleading team, then? Good for the school to finally expel him, and glad he was suspended first. Court=HUGE FAIL. Why did they refuse to indict?

That poor, poor girl. That sounds horrible to go through.

[Andara Bledin]

She was allowed to re-join the cheerleading squad, but was eventually dropped for issues with her GPA. It appears that while she had been an honors student previously, she barely graduated high school.

I suspect that a lot of that is probably due to the effort she had to put into actually getting the court to go after their asses, and then into the cases against the school and school officials.

She's now going to college to get into forensics, which she had been interested in prior to the attack, but now has a greater interest in pursuing. Hopefully, she can keep herself objective in her work.

^-.-^

[telecom_goddess]

Ok well this had a better ending than I thought in some ways anyway.

I hope she does well in college and in life...

[tropicsgoddess]

That's just fucked up that the rapist got to skate by on his offense while the victim is punished for it!

[Plaidman]

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/tex...oses-in-court/


So she lost the case. Courts proclaimed that as an agent of the school, she had zero right to refuse to cheer for him, regardless of what he allegedlly did, and it was a frivious lawsuit. Now has to pay back several thousands of dollars, and supreme court won't hear of it.