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When I was in high school, I didn’t exactly have the best judgment. To say the least. Neither did my friends. But I can’t imagine any of us ever standing around and watching a gang rape, taking photos with our cell phones, or deciding to join in the assault.
But that’s what happened at a high school in California. To a 15-year-old girl.
This is so fucked up. The details, from abc.com: It happened on campus. Some 4-7 people likely participated while another dozen watched and took photos, but none called police. Only 2 people have been arrested. The school did a campus sweep after the dance, but somehow missed this particular part of campus. The attack was so vicious this girl was helicoptered to a hospital.
A school spokesman reportedly called the dance a success and blamed the girl’s parents:
Nevetheless, the school spokesman said it’s up to parents to make sure their children get safely home from these types of dances.
“Once the child leaves the dance, we don’t take them home,” Trujillo said.
The spokesman later told KGO, “The dance itself was a success in terms of safety. Nothing happened at the event. We’re currently exploring our protocols to make sure that we can expand them, and make sure that this isolated incident doesn’t get repeated again.”
At least one police officer spoke more accurately about the case:
“These suspects are monsters. And, I don’t understand how this many people capable of such atrocious behavior could be in one place at one time,” Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan told KGO.”
Dara Cashman, who heads Contra County’s sex assault unit, told ABC News that she will begin reviewing the evidence Wednesday to determine whether criminal charges would be filed. She noted, however, the investigation is continuing.
Cashman indicated that witnesses who did not come to the girl’s aid or call police were unlikely to be charged with a crime unless they aided the assault.
Worse yet, the girl was only found after witnesses were overhead talking about the attack while it was still happening.
KGO reported that police were called only after someone who was not at the scene heard people talking about the attack, which was still going on.
Police officers found the girl semi-conscious, curled up near a lunch table.
People, there is a serious problem in our culture if no one who witnesses a gang rape gives a shit about the victim or feels compelled to help. I’ve already warned that Hollywood’s skewed perspective when it came to Polanski is dangerous and harmful to our society. As if we needed evidence, this is a horrific case in point.
What will it take for our society to ever realize the seriousness of this problem? What are parents teaching these boys? What the fuck is going on?
Do you remember what it was like to be 15? Can you imagine the lifelong emotional recovery time after surviving an attack like this?
And you can bet the subsequent media coverage will focus on what the girl did to “get herself into that situation,” whether she had a past romantic history with anyone involved, and any other way they can find to distract from the horror of the crime.
I’ve heard this phenomenon explained like this: everybody wants to distance themselves or otherwise separate themselves from victims of rape so that they can believe they have the power or control to avoid it.
I understand the impulse to find a way to feel safe in your life by creating that artificial distance. But the reality is that no one is safe, not even a 15-year-old girl leaving a high school homecoming dance, until we stop blaming victims, we stop shaming victims, we stop glorifying violence. It’s time we condemn the rapists and punish them in a way that effectively deters rape.
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Disgusting, end of story. Blaming the parents? Since when do teenagers, practically adults, have to have their hands held every time they leave school? By the time my friends and I were 15 or so, we went to dances and such alone. And the bystanders? Hell, that’s not a bystander. Some of these people TOOK PICTURES and JOINED IN. Talking about it, taking pictures, and joining in doesn’t make you a bystander.
Even scarier is the implication that these are teenage boys. We’re taught to fear the old crazy guy, not our lab partner!
“have to have their hands held every time they leave school?”
BECAUSE IT IS IN RICHMOND
would you just think it’s okay for teens in murderville to leave anywhere by themselves at night? I freaking wouldn’t. I live in the bay area and would never, ever walk around certain places at night by myself.
I am NOT blaming the victim. I am blaming the disgusting rapists. But if you live up here, the sad part of this story is that you are not shocked at all.
At first I really didn’t find fault with the school. I’m not from the area, but from what you’re saying it sounds like the school district should have had better security.
Yeah, the school dropped the ball on this one.
The guy who allegedly began the attack wasn’t a student. He was a former student who never should’ve been on campus. I blame the school for him even being there.
To have the nerve to say a dance was “successful” when a 15 year old girl was airlifted out of there is pretty galling.
I live in Chicago. Sorry, the name ‘Murderville’ is already taken. I also did not go to school in an especially nice neighborhood. Please don’t tell me about being ’shocked’ at crime, I’ve probably heard about/witnessed more than you have. And we were still not expected to have our hands held at fifteen going in and out of a high school dance. Either way, the implication was that it was teenage boys, peers of hers, and not just some random rapists who happened to come across her. Frankly, I’ve heard of similar cases happening in ‘we leave our doors unlocked’ communities, and I feel like I hear it MORE from those communities.
“Frankly, I’ve heard of similar cases happening in ‘we leave our doors unlocked’ communities, and I feel like I hear it MORE from those communities.”
i won’t argue that but i think that you hear it more because they are so genuinely shocked at it happening. there was a shooting in my hometown 4+ years ago by some out-of-towners (property developer screwed somebody over in a deal) and its still spoken about often, whereas in a city the crime rates are such that its not so out of the realm of normal that it sears into the community’s memory like that
oh, I call several cities Murderville. And I am pretty sure both Oakland and Richmond are usually on the top ten list for the country. It’s weird living in between the two.
I’m not trying to have a who-lives-somewhere-more-dangerous argument. I grew up in the suburbs in Ohio; I’m not going to win. I live in Berkeley now, in a fairly okay area. I am never scared for my safety. But I do avoid certain places…. one of which happens to be the majority of Richmond.
“I’ve probably heard about/witnessed more than you have.”
oh, and that could easily be true, I’m sure. But I am a true crime junkie. But perhaps you have known more people to be victims of violent attacks? The one you could easily win from me.
*that one
I’m not trying to get into a ‘who has more crime’ argument, just saying, your justification as to why isn’t a very good one. Fact is, in most places, a fifteen year old girl shouldn’t have to be walked to and from school and home by her parents. I’m not NECESSARILY saying the school is at fault, but I’m also saying they can’t use the ‘her parents should have picked her up’ cop out, because by the time I was fifteen, everyone either had a friend with a car or just walked/bussed themselves, regardless of the city/neighborhood.
Teenagers are not “practically adults.” They’re future adults. Their frontal lobes are not even done developing. Those last few years before they become adults is when a lot of mental growing up happens. But it hasn’t already happened just because they look like adults.
Teenage girls are one of the biggest target groups for violent sexual crime. If you live in a particularly dangerous area it’s pretty stupid to choose to ignore that fact.
This is nobody’s fault but the rapist, but I sure as hell would not be letting my teenage daughter walk around alone at night in a dangerous area.
That’s pretty impractical. And the fact is, teenagers aren’t children and the vast majority of teenagers are totally capable at getting to school and back without their parents. I did it, everyone I knew did it, and you can’t blame it on a different time, because I started doing it only 4 years ago. In a ‘dangerous area.’
We’re not talking about school hours here. We’re talking about walking the streets of a particularly dangerous town at night. It’s not a smart thing for a teenage girl to do alone. It just isn’t.
I’m honestly surprised this doesn’t happen more often in Richmond
I mean, right? I am not that surprised. I don’t go anywhere near Richmond. That place is terrifying.
sick to my stomach… i think everyone who made a video of this, watched, or took part in this should be charged.
that is terrible
If someone took pictures or video of this, they could possibly be charged with child pornography. The victim was only 15 years old.
This being California, I won’t be surprised at the level of poor police work / prosecution that will be exposed at some point in time.
I agree. I’ve heard of something called the Good Samaritan law. I wonder if it exists here in the U.S. – maybe in certain states? Ok, it’s probably not a good idea to get involved in a crime if you are worried about getting hurt or killed. But at least call the police! I wonder if any other girls were there…
What is the mentality nowadays? Taking pictures of it?? Wow.
In the US, the Good Samaritan law is just a law that protects anyone who assists someone in an accident from lawsuit, i.e. if you see a car flipped over on the side of the road and you pull an injured person out of it and try to help them, you can’t be held liable for anything that happens to them afterwards, so they or their family can’t sue you. It’s supposed to encourage people to at least try to help without worrying if they’re going to be punished for it.
In Germany the Good Samaritan laws (there are a few) basically make you legally responsible to help out someone in an emergency. For instance, if you see a wrecked car in the road you are legally bound to stop and offer assistance. I think that’s the kind of law frenchorchid was talking about.
This is disgusting. Something similar happened here in Spain a week or so ago – these girls (14 years old) were in the school bus on the way back home and 9 of their classmates gang raped her. When the bus driver was told by other kids they were raped, he refused to pull out and stop what was going on at the back of the bus. They have been expelled from high school. If you speak Spanish, you can read it here (http://www.telecinco.es/informativos/sociedad/noticia/100010966/Expulsados+nueve+alumnos+de+un+instituto+por+la+presunta+agresion+sexual+a+una+companera+en+un+autobus+escolar).
Makes me sick how the bus driver REFUSED to help the girls.
err…
http://www.telecinco.es/informativos/sociedad/noticia/100010966/Expulsados+n
ueve+alumnos+de+un+instituto+por+la+presunta+agresion+sexual+a+una+co
mpanera+en+un+autobus+escolar
hope it works now!
:((((((
http://www.telecinco.es/informativos/sociedad/noticia/100010966/Expulsados+nueve+alumnos+de+un+instituto+por+la+presunta+agresion+sexual+a+una+companera+en+un+autobus+escolar
I would strangle the bus driver if that was my daughter.
This is entirely horrific, but I do not agree of course with the comparison to Polanski, I mean a gang rape is entirely different to a consented to incidence of oral sex which was legally statutory rape, and very likely exaggerated. No it isn’t about blaming the victim in this case, it is just admitting that not everything is so black and white. This gang rape though is CLEARLY obviously disgustingly wrong.
For the record, Polanski drugged her and fucked her in the ass, over her protests.
This was not a case of consensual oral sex.
uh there are absolutely NO statements saying that other than the hyperbolic internet arguers. The actual case only involves oral sex which was likely consented to although drugs were involved. I’m not saying that that was a good thing that a young girl was sexually involved with someone who obviously had a position of power over her or a situation which was asked for by the girl at all, but there is quite a difference between the Polanski case and this.
Her original police report says it.
There are still huge differences between this and Polanski, and I do not wish to compare them in any way. There is no point.
As for polanski details though, it was oral, and anal sex, with an intoxicated minor who protested in fear.
You can view the disgusting details of the girl’s testimony here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskib9.html
(I’ve linked you to the page which starts on the sexual activity. you can navigate forward or back.)
You see, this is why people go ballistic and vigilante…because the system fails.
If this happened to my daughter, and the police couldn’t charge the onlookers or find the suspects, honestly, I can’t say that I wouldn’t take things into my own hands; start my own investigation, harass these people, put pressure on them, threaten them, make them rue the day they were conceived. What else is left to do?
rapists certainly deserve prosectution. But witnessing a crime is not illegal at this time. Immoral, yes. sick, perhaps. But not illegal. While some cases might look easy, illegalising witnessing leads to way too many problems to successfully implement.
this is the sickest thing I have heard for a long time
I support chemical castration for those monsters!
and long they rot in jail
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/France-Chemical-Castration-Considered-After-Brutal-Murder-Near-Paris/Article/200910115398028?f=rss
This article missed the part where the cops said they wanted to file charges, but there are specific laws preventing people from being charged for being witnesses to a crime.
He did point out that are laws meant to prosecute people for not coming forward when a child is being sexually abused, but that the law is for children under 14, and this girl was 15.
The cops are super pissed about not being able to punish the people that stood around and did nothing to help.
What I want to know is how there was a group of 20 people standing around on campus and nobody thought they should check it out? What the hell kind of campus security is that?
We can only hope that somehow a list of the “witnesses” is leaked to the press by someone with a conscience.
These people with no souls should be exposed for the losers they are. Maybe not ethical, but it’s certainly justice.
I understand that Polanski is a hated man who did a terrible thing, but is now every discussion of rape going to have to include his name?
The villian here is a culture which permits the oversexualization of society’s youth, and popularizes sexual aggression. This form of culture has been building for decades, and might be more of a cause of Polanski’s actions, as opposed to a result.
I think it would be far more evaluable to look into passive bystander behaviours in psychological studies than to simply assume that some rapist-loving community has allowed children to think that rape is okay.
I personally don’t think any of the boys involved in this attack even know who Polanski is.
I’m guessing this has more to do with how girls are devalued in gang culture than anything that happens in Hollywood, or any other segment of society.
When I was 15 one of my best friends was raped at a party thrown by gang members. When she told another guy what happened, he raped her too. Yet another guy came to see what was happening, and he joined in. We spent an entire school year protecting our friend from the girlfriends of the rapists because they were mad that their boyfriends ended up in jail. They thought that she should’ve just kept quiet about it like all the other girls who’d been raped by members of the gang. They honestly just thought that it was a normal occurrence. And in gang culture, it usually is.
I will be very, very surprised if these guys don’t turn out to be gang members.
Things like this happen way too often in schools today. I know of at least two instances in the county I grew up in where students were raped on school grounds. There was a third instance I never heard about till years after it happened but took place at my own school that was never reported to any adults. One of the special learning girls was offered a ride home with a group of boys from our school but they, instead of taking her home, road around town for hours badgering her until she submitted to giving them all oral sex. So yes, oral sex can be rape too. It’s more mental than the pure brute physical submission most rapes are, the victim isn’t overpowered as much as broken down emotionally and mentally so that they perform the oral act, and I think that’s why it’s rarely reported. The victims feel that they will be judged because everyone always asks why she didn’t just bite? Fear, is why.
I never knew that’s why people picked on that girl but I stuck up for her a few times even though she wasn’t one of my friends. She was sweet and gentle, so it used to tick me off to see people hounding her and making her so upset. I’d have done more had I known that was what they were teasing her about…
I honestly believe this happens way more on campus than any administrators are willing to admit and it’s just horrible. No one should be worried that they could get raped trying to get to math class. Boys or girls..
This happened in Aust a while a go – a bunch of 17/18 year olds on a football trip gang raped a girl. What is going wrong with the young men in the world? The response from the community needs to be swift, decisive and agressive. This is a rot in human society that we need to deal with together.
Every incident of such a thing is definitely horrible, but realitically, the vast, vast majority of teenage boys went to school today and didn’t rape someone. Don’t start painting a brush of rot over everyone.
God, this poor child has my sympathy, and her attackers and the rubberneckers have my rage and hatred.
When I was thirteen years old, three boys cornered me in the girls bathroom and tried to gang rape me. This happened after three months of constant harrassment, in front of my friends, in front of the school’s faculty, out in the open without any shame from those boys. They’d hit me in front of the teacher and then laugh about it. I begged to have my schedule changed, and the school declined because it didn’t want to show “preferential treatment” to any of the students in regards to making schedules. No matter who I went to, the concensus was that “boys will be boys” and it was somehow my fault for making them want to behave this way toward me. And do you know what my huge crime was against them?
I beat one of them in an art contest. Yeah, that was all the justification they needed to make my life a living hell. To this day, I still have trouble being alone in a room with men. I can only go on group dates until I get to know someone pretty well. All because no one wanted to get involved.
There has to be a point where people say “enough” and take a stand. This was a child, regardless of the situation. Anyone involved, however tangentially, needs to be brought up on criminal charges and made to understand what they did was wrong, and evil.