A Cheerleader was dropped from the squad, sued the high school she was on for wrongful dismissal, lost, then was ordered to pay the the school 45,000 for wasting it's time essentially. Her reason? She didn't want to cheer the name of the man who raped her.

What got me bothered was the lack of attention this case is getting. I went through google and saw one article that linked to ABC News. There was another horrific story linked with it.

Clearly, Law and Order SVU is fiction in more ways than one. Gone is the image of the caring police officers who are concerned with our safety. Meet the images of officers who don't want to do what they are paid for.

In truth, I don't even know where to go with this topic. I have no where to go, my mind is just a haze of anger and disbelief. I won't give the tired speech of being our daughters our mothers our friends... These are people. Humans. It's not enough that someone physically did all they could do to violate and strip trust and safety from these women, they are denied even further by not even getting justice or human consideration.

God, I'm angry. I want to discuss this, I want answers and I want to figure out a way to get this out of my world... I don't know how. I don't know. I just need someone to make sense of this for me. How can we let this happen to us?

Phobos did you seriously just try to justify that, and manage to go "well if she's not LYING about it..." in the process?

Holy shit dude. You are being part of the problem. WHAT THE FUCK.

I understand that a lot of rape cases are difficult to prosecute, I DO. I understand that it often comes down to one person's word against another, and that the justice system needs more evidence than that.

But THIS?

H.S. was then raped, according to court documents, as other partygoers, hearing her screams, banged on the door to the room. When the door burst open, the documents allege, Bolton and Rountree had made their way out a window in an adjacent bathroom.

H.S. was found under the pool table, half-naked and sobbing. Both Bolton and Rountree were arrested the next day.

You have a whole TRUCKLOAD of evidence and what seems like a good sized witness pool. HOW ARE THESE BOYS NOT IN PRISON? HOW is this girl being treated like the villain in her own school?

What a brave girl. I hope she gets what she needs out of this.

Someone's lying. I don't know who. Since he wasn't convicted we must allow for the possibility, however minute, that he didn't actually rape her.

We are not the media and courts aren't infallible. Conviction doesn't guarantee guilt and the lack of a conviction  is definitely not an assurance of innocence. O.J. Simpson wasn't convicted, but no one except him feels the need to say "IF he did it".

Treating the two" sides" as if they're equal is not, in practice equal--certainly not in cases like this. One of the roots of the problem, here, is that virtually regardless of the evidence or situation, people are reluctant to believe rape victims, and this is even more true when the rapist is famous or a star athlete or etc. Adding completely unnecessary qualifiers is a very little piece of that, but it is a piece.

On top of that, there are people here who were victims and, odds are, weren't believed. I can't speak for them, but it's a lot easier for me to speak than it is for them. Not saying that kind of thing would be such a little thing, but it *could* mean a lot to someone who was--is--hurt.


I'm sorry for kinda lashing out at first. This is kinda an Issue.

First off, did anyone see the other link posted? The one that leads to ABC news?

Secondly, I do not buy the 'Well, you were victimized so change your life to avoid it' angle. I'm not even going to touch the fact that the charges shouldn't have been dropped with the mountain of evidence, but why should he be allowed to play football when, in my school, if you were caught even near kids who were smoking pot you were banned from sports?

If I've learned anything from the women around me who were raped, it is that you just want your life to go back to the way it was. She will never have that old normalcy back. But what they do is go through their routine and try to at least adhere to that. Barring the fact that she could have been trying for a Cheerleading Scholarship, The legal system failed her once and allowed that boy to continue. Why does she always have to make the changes for what's been done to her? Why does it seem like the legal and school system is supporting the attacker here rather than the victim.

Oh. Also?

School speech
In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), the Supreme Court extended free speech rights to students in school. The case involved several students who were punished for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court ruled that the school could not restrict symbolic speech that did not cause undue interruptions of school activities. Justice Abe Fortas wrote,
Schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students...are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State.
However, since 1969 the Supreme Court has placed a number of limitations on Tinker interpretations. In Bethel School District v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986), the Court ruled that a student could be punished for his sexual-innuendo-laced speech before a school assembly and, in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988), the Court found that school newspapers enjoyed fewer First Amendment protections and are subject to school censorship. More recently, in Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. 393 (2007) the Court ruled that schools could, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at school-sponsored events, even events away from school grounds, if students promote "illegal drug use".

It is her right to sit down and not cheer this man just as much as it's someoen's right not to salute the flag. A little more detail and history here. As an American Citizen, this nation and it's laws are SUPPOSED to back her if she didn't do anything to lead harm to the boy. She did a silent protest. And until someone can show me where in the constitution it says "And Cheerleaders will be compelled to support the twats that took the most from them", you can not convince me she did anything wrong. She is a champion. That is all.

... there are cheerleading scholarships?

Cheerleading is a highly competitive sport these days.  Wisconsin ruled it is a full-contact sport, just like rugby, football, lacrosse, wrestling,  and ice hockey.  It can be seen as collective gymnastics sans protective mats

did anyone watch the video that came with the second link?

We are not the media and courts aren't infallible. Conviction doesn't guarantee guilt and the lack of a conviction  is definitely not an assurance of innocence. O.J. Simpson wasn't convicted, but no one except him feels the need to say "IF he did it".

You know...my brother, for YEARS, was utterly convinced that O.J. got away with murder.  Then at one of his Criminal Justice conventions he met one of the forensic analysts that worked the case and heard a lot of evidence that never made it into the media.  He is now 100% certain that O.J. did not kill his wife.  He certainly won't rule out the theory that he HIRED someone to do it, but the actual physical evidence was, in fact, the reason he was acquitted for murder, because the evidence showed it was not him. [/threadjack]

As for the actual topic at hand...my thoughts are very confused and hard to put into words.  I'll be back when I think I can actually articulate what I'm feeling and thinking.

This is all quite mind-blowing. We have this backlog of evidence, and these cops who appear to have given up on protecting women. It makes no sense.

I'm going to try to take all of this, and frame it in a way that makes it make sense.

Police departments and crime labs receive insufficient money to process the number of kits that come in. The backlog increases. As fewer arrests lead to convictions, the police lose some motivation in pursuing rape cases. Over time, this leads to a gradual reduction in rape convictions overall, which causes those policemen to receive a "pat on the back" for decreasing crime. (There HAVE been radical reductions in rape cases over the past 20 years, watch the second video in the second link.) Being congratulated for the decrease in rape convictions further motivates the police to look the other way. The labs become even more backed up in the meantime. And then, recently, we hit our recession, and even less money is available to pursue these cases.

So basically, things have gotten so bad, the United States no longer has the finances the protect women, and the media is too stupid to draw any attention to it.

I find it remarkable how our society is able to march toward Fascism AND Anarchy at the same time.