Appalling story. I can not fathom the mindset of the school admin. who punished the rape victim.

[salin]

Missouri School Sued For Allegedly Making Special Ed Student Write Apology Letter To Her Rapist

By Marie Diamond posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Aug 17, 2011 at 5:25 pm

In one of the most brazen examples of “blaming the victim” in recent memory, a school in Springfield, Missouri, has, according to a lawsuit, not only dismissed the rape claims of a seventh grade special education student, but also forced the girl to write and hand-deliver an apology letter to her alleged attacker. The lawsuit claims that the same student later raped her again. The school and other defendants have denied all charges.

According to the lawsuit, after the second attack, a rape kit was administered and the boy pleaded guilty to unspecified charges in juvenile court. But the school still refused to take the girl seriously — and even suspended her again, this time for “Disrespectful Conduct” and “Public Display of Affection.” The seventh grader reported her rape in the spring of 2009, and even though school officials are required by law to report such incidents to the authorities, Republic Middle School failed to do so:

--- snip ---
When she came back the following year, the school allegedly refused her mother’s request for extra monitoring and did not separate her from her alleged attacker. In February 2010, the lawsuit says he “was able to hunt down, drag her to the back of the school library, and again forcibly rape her.” She and her mother reported this rape to the police, and a rape kit tested positive for her attacker’s semen — he plead guilty to charges in juvenile court.



More at link: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/17/297888/missouri-school-sued-for-allegedly-making-special-ed-student-write-apology-letter-to-her-rapist/

I have been an educator for years. I have worked in the classroom and in the front office. I can not think of a single reason why this was handled in such a disgusting way. The girl gets expelled for the rest of the school year after the first rape. Comes back to school the next year and is not protected from being raped a second time by the same perp./student. I hope the family sues for huge damages, as this child likely desperately needs some serious therapy after such horrendous events.

[PeaceNikki]

1. That certainly *IS* appalling!

My heart aches for that poor girl. :(

[salin]

7. mine too, and for her family that has to help her try to heal

and for all the young girls at the school who have learned a harsh, cynical lesson about trusted institutions that are invisibly (until such an event occurs) malevolent to girls.

[RKP5637]

2. That, is a school system that needs some administrators removed at minimal. n/t

[derby378]

4. Maybe they could use some NEW administrators?

I've got 12 years of administrative experience with lots of computer skills - and the willingness to crack a rapist's head open if need be.

[RKP5637]

6. Sure sounds that way. This kind of crap just amazes me. n/t

[salin]

9. I have broken up fights, called police in criminal situations, and been part of a morning parkinglot

patrol when we learned that a student had been propositioned by a car driver between the bus stop and the school. There is no greater concern than student safety. I'll pass the head cracking onto you (not quite strong enough, nor strong enough stomach, to pull that off.) ;)

[derby378]

15. And after I'm done with that kid, I'll start on the ex-admins...

...who ordered that poor little girl to write that unthinkable "I'm sorry I accused you of something that you actually did to me but I can't talk about it because I'm a little slut" letter to the student who raped her.

It's not going to be pretty.

[salin]

18. agreed

each administrator involved in this situation, is responsible. Horrific situation,

[fascisthunter]

3. Republic Middle School ... WTF?

the name alone sounds political

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Sadly I can... and this is not limited to republican areas

we have a serious problem with a minority of administrators and NOT just in the US either. It is not public school vs private or democrat vs republican... it is a mindset that I have seen...

For the record people like that, once again a MINORITY, do not belong in education ANYWHERE in the world

That said we see this regularly, not in such an egregious example, when kids who are bullied are blamed for it.

[salin]

10. + 100

[Odin2005]

8. I can, and so does every other victim of bullying.

Those who stand up to bullies are usually punished by the school.

[salin]

11. that is unacceptable (on the part of schools).

however on the one hand, I take exception to the comparison of bullying to rape. On the other hand, if bullying is accepted and reporters are punished, than by extension I suppose it is natural that the same would be true for the even more extreme act of power/domination that is rape.

[Odin2005]

19. I didn't mean to compare them, It's just that both are examples.

[pitohui]

12. it was ever thus and i see little evidence that anything has changed

i don't feel like telling my sad story but at the end of the day, schools do not admit that rapes occur on their campuses or that their employees or "preferred" students might push unwanted sex on the unwilling, so the victim is almost certainly going to lose her education in most cases

my guess is that MOST rapes result in the girl losing her education, job, etc. if it occurs on a campus and she dares to report it

once in awhile you hear of a rapist or harasser being sued or arrested but how often does that happen, compared to how often girls and women are victimized at school or work every day? it should not be a rare news item that a victim "wins" but we all know that it is, and if it's rare for victims to win, it stands to reason that the victim is almost always punished

the only positive thing is that this happening in the 7th grade means that she gets changed to a different middle school, which is bad enough, but not on a par with having tens of thousands of dollars and many years of college education going into the trashcan because you reported being raped or stalked -- you can come back from changing a middle school but you don't recover from having the value of your college degree made worthless when you become unemployable because you were a victim

i mean it's all horrible, on every level, but it is something that i promise you happens every single day and most rapists are multiple offenders and molesters/attackers because, at the end of the day, most of them know they can get away with it

there is no healing, because you can never get over the fact that your rapist will have a long, happy, financially successful life while the chance of having a financially successful life is almost zero for the victim, since you are now labeled "crazy" if you tell the truth about your life and if you can't tell your truth well that in itself is "crazy making," victims can't win

the anger never goes away, there is no healing, there is the family and i suppose therapists telling her to push back what she really feels and shutting the fuck up, but there is NO healing until the rapist is dead or in prison and maybe not even then if it comes too late

i'm sure there are those who pretend at healing so their family will stop picking at them, but healing doesn't exist when you're the victim of rape/violent crime and then re-victimized by the fact that the rapist is LAUGHING at how he has destroyed your life...and the law is on his side

you don't heal from that if you're made of flesh and blood

[salin]

16. cynical, but very true words.

I expend great tears, as a survivor, in realizing that in more than two decades little has changed.

[Odin2005]

20. !!!

:hug:

[stevedeshazer]

13. Sick.

Thanks for posting, salin.

[Hydrated]

14. The schoolmasters should be in Special Ed

Disgustingly daft!

[csziggy]

17. Even after the SECOND rape, the administrators are blaming the child

“Plaintiff’s claims against the District are frivolous, and have no basis in fact or law” said the response, written by the school district’s lawyers Celynda Brasher and Michelle Basi. “Therefore, the District Defendants are entitled to an award of their reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.”

The girl failed and neglected to use reasonable means to protect her self, the response says. Any damages the girl may have sustained, “were as a result of the negligence, carelessness, or conduct of third parties over whom the District Defendants had neither control nor the right to control,” according to the school district response.

More: http://www.news-leader.com/article/20110816/NEWS12/110816008/Lawsuit-filed-against-Republic-School-District-over-rape-claim

Also:

“School Officials, although mandatory reporters under Missouri’s Child Abuse Reporting Law, failed to report (the girl’s) complaints to the Division of Family Services or to Greene County Juvenile Authorities,” the suit says.

The girl used "reasonable means" to protect herself - she reported the original rape to authorities that had a legal requirement to protect her and THEY are the ones who put her in danger AGAIN after punishing her. Aside from any other aspect of this, every person in that school involved with this girl's mistreatment should be charged with malfeasance for not doing their due diligence to report an allegation of the rape of a minor. They should never be allowed to be in charge of minors and their careers in education of minors should END.