What Has, and Hasn’t, Changed Since the Steubenville Rape
What Has, and Hasn’t, Changed Since the Steubenville Rape
After Ma’Lik Richmond and Trent Mays were found delinquent of raping an incapacitated 16-year-old girl in August 2012, critics watching the case leveled a stinging allegation against Steubenville, Ohio: In the hero-worshipping football town, star players—like Richmond and Hays—can do no wrong. That accusation proved true this week when Richmond, released from juvenile detention after serving nine months of a one-year sentence, was admitted back onto Steubenville High School’s Big Red football team, rejoining a privileged class of students while his victim carries on coping with the trauma of rape.
While the justice system may have punished Richmond as it saw fit, it’s also the job of schools and communities to create a safe environment for young people. Steubenville and its local high school, unfortunately, have done little to create that safe space.
School officials say students and teachers spent a large portion of last school year discussing sexual assault and bystander intervention; however, it appears these efforts will not continue in full force this year once Richmond has returned to school. School superintendent Micheal McVey told Jezebel that Steubenville City Schools have only scheduled two assemblies to discuss good decision-making (a rather vague concept) during the upcoming year.
Indeed, community members seem more focused on bemoaning the negative media attention wrought by the incident than discussing the unimaginable emotional and physical pain caused by sexual assault and educating students about respect and consent.
Efforts to remove community leaders, such as athletic coaches, who have tacitly condoned rape culture have also fallen short. Head coach of the Steubenville High School football team, Reno Saccoccia, will continue to lead the team even after refusing to punish players who posted photos of the incident online and testifying in favor of Mays and Richmond during their
trials. Initially, players who watched and even videotaped the assault were not suspended from the team—they were only suspended after playing for a majority of the regular season games. Saccoccia says he made that choice because the players saw no fault in their decisions.
Another coach, Nate Hubbard, also directly participated in the horrific victim-blaming that accompanied the trial when he said, “The rape was just an excuse, I think … What else are you going to tell your parents when you come home drunk like that and after a night like that?”
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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2014/08/15/what-has-and-hasnt-changed-since-the-steubenville-rape/
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