Tonight I read my news feed from CBS and was so mortified by what I read that I feel compelled to write about it here. Recently a young girl was gang raped at her high school- not in secret by some boyfriend who didn't understand that "NO!" meant "NO!"- but by "multiple people"- and this happened as others looked on, some taking pictures with their cell phones...
and no one bothering to try to intervene or get help. Read the story yourself, at CBS news.
I find it amazing that anyone could stand idly by and watch such a thing happening, and somehow convince themselves that it's okay. That in standing by and watching this victim being beaten, abused, humiliated and mocked they had not also degraded themselves. Is this really what our teens have become? How can they justify in their minds what they took part in? How can they look at the photos they took of the incident as it happened, and not feel overcome with shame and remorse for having stood by and watched- joking and laughing as this girl was repeatedly raped?
Is this the result of countless hours spent playing computer games - locked alone in a virtual world where nothing is real? Even if that were true, one would think that hearing the girl sobbing and screaming would be enough to snap them out of their 'virtual world'.
And what about responsibility? We all are our brother's keeper ... so how exactly does one relieve themselves of the responsibility of helping someone in distress?
This girl will suffer from this event for the rest of her life- long after those who thought it was so funny will have forgotten it. Even during the fight for justice against her assailants she will suffer as the Defense Attorneys try to paint her as having "asked for it!" No one 'asks' to be publicly humiliated, beaten, and repeatedly raped! No doubt they will point to her drinking before the attack to somehow blame her for it. It's true she shouldn't have been drinking, but that does not
relieve the assailants of responsibility, nor should it prevent them bearing the consequences of their actions.
Given the school's troubles mentioned in the article, one has to wonder why the patrolling officers were released from duty while there were still kids on the school grounds. And what I find even more interesting (and laughable) is how anyone in their right mind could consider a "Dance" where a girl is gang raped repeatedly as others look on and take pictures, a "successful event..." and "safe for the students that were there."
I know of at least one student who wasn't safe.
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