Reaction on Ohio Teens Guilty of Rape

Reading the news on the result of a trial of two Ohio teens today got me thinking. For those of you who haven’t heard about the case, two high school football players, Ma’Lik Richmond and Trent Mays, were charged guilty for raping and filming another high school student; the term used was “digitally raped,” which seems redundant because rape is rape – why add the “digitally” part? While I am slightly relieved and annoyed at the sentence these two were given (minimum one year in Juvenile prison; I still think it should be a higher minimum), what really gets me going is the fact of how rape is treated in court and American society.

Common arguments against the accuser, a 16-year-old girl, were that she liked to drink and that she was known to lie. Putting aside all that and the fact that I believe underage drinking is wrong, the fact still remains that she was raped, and it was recorded. Again, rape is rape. The fact that this young girl is being blamed for what happened to her does not sit well in my stomach. The fact that the two high school football players apologized only after the verdict was read also doesn’t sit well with me. It demonstrates the asinine idea that if you don’t get caught or don’t get found guilty, then crime is okay. It’s not. This should not be glorified, and that’s what you are doing if you are filming a person who isn’t aware of what is happening as they are being sexually assaulted. The other aspect of this case that gets me irritated is the fact that so many other underage witnesses refused to give a testimony, which is a failure to report child abuse and rape. The fact remains that this is happening all the time, and only a few get punished. Reading this on the news today gave me mixed emotions. I just do not understand why people treat others so badly. This whole case really just made me ill.