A ninth-grade girl was raped in a public school bathroom in Loudoun County, Virginia.
The male student (alleged) rapist in question got access to the bathroom by...wearing a skirt.
Oh, and the (alleged) rapist has offended again (allegedly) after being arrested.
Not that our conflict-of-interest-ridden AG will care about any of that.
The good news about America's demographic collapse is that public school boards will be a much smaller part of American life in two generations. But in the meantime, they have become positively Catholic in their determination to be regarded as infallible and treated as unaccountable. And that will invariably come with a victim list.
And they now have the law enforcement machinery of the federal government and narrative-shaping cultural forces in their corner.
Oh, and "back the blue," eh?
Not when they do crap like they did to Scott Smith.
Looks like correlation, not causation. Do hall monitors not know their own students? Do not public restrooms have same-sex bullying going on? Do not parents who misbehave at public meetings draw consequences? As a father, sure I would be white-hot angry. But violence against a system that has turned its gaze away from bullies for generations isn't going to resolve the matter. Conservative hand-wringing is often a means of clouding the bigger issue: bullies in the school system. And I mean students, teachers, and administrators.
ReplyDeleteThe narrative requires that the possibility of causation be hand-waved away. The Board's suppression of facts concurs.
DeleteAnd I concur entirely that bullying of any kind, on any basis, in any way shape or form--including predation--needs to be culled out of the system. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance.
DeleteEven if it inadvertently skewers a social crusade or two in the process.
We're talking about RAPE.
DeleteYou know - #metoo, violence against women, etc etc?
Are you, Todd, really so morally stunted that bringing up a comparatively minor issue in light of an ACTUAL VIOLENT CRIME is just a little bit out of order??
Oh wait, I forgot who we were talking to. There's no limit to the amount of other people you'll have martyred for the sake of your own self-serving, smug righteousness, right?
Wrong. Get over yourself, Nate. LGBTQ people get raped and even killed in modern America. Read my second comment, dude.
DeleteYour second comment wasn't there earlier, Todd.
DeleteAnd yeah, LGBTQ people get attacked as well - they're attackers should be prosecuted as well.
But do you go to every funeral of a child and tell the parents, "Well people die all over the world every day"?
I don't say that, certainly. And I know you don't either. What I do point out is that before LGBTQ issues, a male predator could dress up in drag and play Granny as a Big Bad Wolf and attack an innocent girl. My points are these: the school was grossly negligent for allowing predation. No wonder they are pushing back. They need to be hammered, hard and legally, for that. Don't blame the gays, Nate. Blame the school.
DeleteAlso, don't be afraid of adopting the anti-bullying stance that LGBTQ people advocate. It builds a good bridge, even if you are squeamish about it.
And going forward, I don't know if you are Christian or Catholic. But if the latter, check catechism 2478 and apply it the next time we get into a discussion.
Scott Smith wasn't violent.
ReplyDeleteAnd given the hate-fest that pro-trans forces drop on dissenters--as has happened to the Smiths here--hall monitors clearly aren't going to ask any questions.
ReplyDeleteThe administration preferred to lie about a rape than risk offense to the LGBT community--even though it is almost a metaphysical certainty the skirt wearing rapist is not a transgender individual. That says it all.
The linked article said he got into a shouting episode with someone who disbelieved his daughter's experience. If I had been in his shoes, I hope I wouldn't yell. But I'd also pull the feminist card on people who discount the witness of females when attacked by males.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the administration could easily have pivoted to the notion of girls, LGBTQ, and non-athletic boys getting harassed by athletes, mean girls, and other such people--the Kool Krowd. Sadly, the administration often aligns with such young people. It's really a bigger issue than the culturewar. Both the Left and Right have blinders on on this issue. There's common ground to really press the hell out of school administrations. Too bad each side thinks the other has cooties
You're literally pulling an "all lives matter" here.
DeleteThis does feel like the Catholic pivot to "what about public schools" when abusive priests are brought up.
DeleteYes, it's a reasonable point--but it's no less a deflection for all that.
No, I'm not. I'm suggesting the root of the problem is bullying. Not LGBTQ. Address bullying in schools, and hold school professionals accountable. But if it makes you feel better, the boy should be prosecuted, and the school principal, the hall monitor, and any security staff need to have consequences up to and including losing jobs. Feel better?
DeleteIt's not a matter of "feel."
ReplyDeleteAs a strict matter of law, rape is not bullying. And as someone who was bullied in school, I do not lightly dismiss the latter.
Can rape involve elements of bullying? Sure. Students being held down and having foreign objects shoved into their bodies by a gang of bullies undoubtedly experienced both. But the former is still worse.
As legal and policy concepts, the two must be bracketed and addressed accordingly. I see the genuine good intentions here, but lumping them together is a corrupt bureaucrat's ideal. E.g., a Catholic bishop trying to downplay rape would probably prefer to situate it in a larger context of bullying/harassment.
To be fair, Dale, it was you who tossed Amy's trans issue into the fray here. If you and Nate want to focus on rape, I'm fine with that. It is certainly serious, and given the amount of counseling thrown around for other traumatic happenings on school grounds, maybe offering Mr Smith counseling rather than arrest would have been better optics.
ReplyDeleteI think LGBTQ had nothing at all to do with this rape. But school administration to blindness with bullies certainly contributed more to some junior predator having access to a victim.
It is fair to point out that I referenced the issue.
DeleteI think we are in enough agreement on bullying as a general issue for me to leave you with the last word on that.
But I am simply not willing to write off the school's bathroom policy (and possibly related policies) as a factor. Maybe such were, maybe not.
That's what investigations are for. Not that this particular board, which has been proven to lie about assaults, is capable of conducting one.
I'd certainly be willing to concede that the school administration appears to have bumbled its governance of bathrooms and possibly covered up an embarrassing rape. I tend to doubt that bathrooms policies have sparked an uptick in male on female sexual assault. Except where lazy administrators felt that children and/or teens could now be responsible for self-policing their own bathrooms.
DeleteI spent 4 years in a Catholic high school. I certainly got "woke" in terms of some staff being untrustworthy, dim, callous, and occasionally borderline criminal. Blame the gays seems a lazy way out. If school staff had the gumption to police bullying in the first place, then perhaps LGBTQ students wouldn't have raised a righteous ruckus.
Well, well: seems the same male student is being held for another sexual assault on a girl--this time in a vacant classroom. Seems like females, LGBTQ, male nerds and their parents have an opportunity to band together against all levels of bullying up to and including rape.
ReplyDelete