Meanwhile, back in Steubenville, Ohio…
A year ago this week, Michael McVey, the superintendent of schools in Steubenville, Ohio, sat in a conference room down the hall from his office and said he knew none of the details of Aug. 11, 2012, the night a 16-year-old girl was raped by two Steubenville High football players at a series of parties on a hot summer night.
Nope, he said, he didn’t know much, aside from the rumors that had been swirling around the football-crazy town for months. He told me and a colleague that he had not spoken with any of the students thought to be involved in the event because it hadn’t taken place on school grounds or during the school year. Besides, he said, he usually let the football coach take care of that sort of thing.
That all changed drastically Monday, when Ohio’s attorney general, Mike DeWine, made it McVey’s business.
McVey was one of four adults charged with crimes this week as a result of an investigation into the Steubenville rape case…
Well good.
Even if the latest indictments do not produce convictions, DeWine’s aggressive stance is an important moment. By holding adults accountable, prosecutors might persuade school administrators and coaches to make it their business to tell the police when they hear students or athletes have done something illegal. And maybe the police will be more diligent about investigating such complaints.
And maybe, just maybe, school administrators and coaches will even start to do a better job of telling their athletes, “No, really, we mean it: do not rape, and that includes fucking girls who’ve gotten shitfaced and are falling down. We’re not kidding around. We are deadly serious.”
But isn’t the football coach the highest authority in schools?
Seems like.
Disgusting that adults ostensibly charged with protecting the welfare of vulnerable minors don’t seem to give a shit.
It’s good to see that the Times mentioned that this is not just about the Steubenville rape *case* but rather *cases*, plural. The story notes that the grand jury charges also involve a prior rape by athletes (of a 14 year old, in April) that got swept under the rug by the town, which happened several months before the rape case that caught national attention. Most media outlets have ignored this important detail which shows not an isolated incident but a clear pattern of behavior and reveals multiple victims of it, as was pointed out at Newsweek (of all places!) earlier this week. And, in my opinion, even the NYT story gave the second case and its meaning too little prominence.
#1 Jafafa Hots–
Just the highest paid.
That was the same argument by “school officials” at Penn State.
Sounds like there was enough sexual assault going on to make it routine.
thephilosophicalprimate @3
From the Newsweek article:
Hey Bloomdaddy, the legal age of consent in Ohio is 16. Does the phrase “statutory rape” mean anything to you?
USUALLY?
I’m glad others here have caught the significance. Also worth underlining that the boozing—and therefore the raping—seem to have been directly, or indirectly sponsored by the high priests of football.
How would the locals respond if the team had been smoking crack and popping ecstacy at the coach’s place?
Ophelia, have you ever taken any writing classes? If not you need to, your last paragraph looks like it was written by an angry teenager. I think it is time you started to act your age.
So, Thetarr, you don’t understand the use of inverted commas. Fair enough: your problem.