Welcome to this week's episode of
blaming the victim:
A southwestern Missouri school district has denied accusations in a federal lawsuit that officials failed to protect a middle-school girl from being raped, calling the lawsuit "frivolous" and saying the girl "neglected to use reasonable means to protect herself."
The girl, identified as a 7th grade special education student, was raped twice during the course of two school years, according to the lawsuit filed July 5 against Republic School District in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The lawsuit was first reported by the Springfield News-Leader newspaper in Missouri Wednesday.
This girl was raped at her middle school in 2009. When her mother reported the incident to the school, school officials decided she'd made up the story and bullied her into recanting. And then they added insult to injury: they actually made her deliver a written apology to her rapist.
And then he raped her again:
The girl returned to the middle school for the 2009-10 school year and tried to avoid the boy, according to the lawsuit. It didn't work. She was sexually assaulted again but didn't tell anyone because she was afraid of being expelled again, her lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. She was allegedly raped a second time Feb. 16, 2010.
School officials were notified of the incident and allegedly doubted the girl's claim, saying they'd "already been through this," according to the lawsuit. The girl was also examined and found to have been sexually assaulted. However, she was suspended from school for "disrespectful conduct" and "public display of affection," her lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.
The school district denies all of the family's claims, saying that if anything happened it was the "result of the negligence, carelessness, or conduct of third parties over whom the District Defendants had neither control nor the right to control."
How dare this girl claim to have been raped! Doesn't she know how hurtful and disruptive such accusations can be? How selfish of her not to think of how such an allegation would make her poor rapist feel! And besides, if he did rape her, well, it was her own damn fault.
So her rapist gets an apology, and she gets a suspension for being "disrespectful." Unbelievable.
(h/t The Red Pen)
This week's good, bad and ugly below the fold.
The bad and the ugly:
- Ugh:
Bei Bei Shuai, 34, faces charges of murder and attempted feticide, and has been held in jail since March, during which time a judge has denied separate motions to dismiss the charges and to grant bail in the case.
Prosecutors insist Shuai intended to kill her fetus when she ate rat poison in December while she was 33 weeks pregnant. Doctors delivered her daughter prematurely Dec. 31, and the child died three days later.
Obviously, this woman needs help, not a murder charge. But you know how it goes—screw the woman, save the fetus.
- Christine O'Notawitch says the Newsweek cover of crazy-eyes Michele Bachmann is sexist. But Sarah Palin says it's not sexist, it's just "vetting." Because it's only sexist when it's Sarah; otherwise, those whiny broads need to toughen up if they're going to play in a man's world.
- From the diaries, Mother Mags explains how in Arizona, you get an award for beating up your girlfriend.
- Apparently, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R-Of course) thinks rape victims should have to pay for their own medical exams.
- Oh, good lord:
Oh boy, the Vatican, no doubt patting itself on the back for being so generous to the filthy sluts of the world, has set up a six-day event in Madrid where ladies who've had abortions can come and confess in order to escape the automatic excommunication they otherwise would get. The reports don't indicate if the Vatican is generously offering the same thing to murderers, rapists, or priests who molest children only to get transferred to a new parish where there's fresh young people who haven't learned to fear you yet, but that's probably because none of those people are subject to the dogged excommunications of women who let penises near their vaginas for reasons other than producing more hands that can put money in the collection plate. Hey, don't judge! They have to keep helping fund these $87-million (the estimated cost of the Pope’s event in Madrid) Pope excursions, you know.*
- And speaking of crazy religious assholes, the American Taliban is alive and well.
And now for the good stuff:
[T]he [Department of Corrections] will now adopt regulations that protect a pregnant inmate’s dignity and health, and the health and safety of her pregnancy. DOC regulations will now state that pregnant inmates will only be retrained during transport outside the prison perimeter by handcuffs alone. Ankle restraints or restraints that in any other way restrict the woman’s movement will not be used during transportation outside the prison, or during labor, delivery and post-partum recovery. Additional restraints can be applied if a determination is made that the inmate is a danger to herself or others, but should additional restraints be used, they must allow for the woman to walk around, stand up, and turn over. If additional restraints are applied, an incident report must be submitted that states the restraints used and the reason why in order to ensure compliance and accountability. Finally, all restraints must be immediately removed if medical staff so direct.
Shackling pregnant women during labor is a despicable and inhumane practice, and it should be eliminated entirely. This is a step forward.
- Guess what? More sex ed means less sexually transmitted disease.
- This week, we celebrate the 91st anniversary of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Yea! Now, about that Equal Rights Amendment ...