What the hell is going on in Steubenville, Ohio? In case any of you have missed the appalling situation that has unfolded in the quiet Midwestern town and shocked the entire nation, an alleged gang rape and kidnapping of an unconscious 16-year-old girl by two of the town's high-school football players has turned into a complex web of lies perpetrated by many members of the city's "upstanding" citizens. Add to that a cover up extending to team boosters, the town sheriff, parents, coaches, and the alleged "Rape Crew" revealed by the hacker group Anonymous, and the whole thing reads more like an unbelievable crime movie than actual events that transpired in the middle of nowhere.
I live in the Midwest and I can assure you that these are not the values that we raise our children with. We do not teach our daughters that they need to take shelter and hide indoors lest a boy accost them and we do not teach our boys that it is okay to violate our girls. We teach our children that no means no and under no circumstances does it ever mean yes. We teach our children that with hard work and determination they can achieve anything in life. We teach our children to respect their bodies and themselves. That is my Midwest.
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Obviously, one state over in the small town of Steubenville, Ohio, football is king and those who play are above the law and able to do as they please, when they please, with whomever they please, even if that means allegedly drugging a young girl and repeatedly raping her, humiliating her, and then having the audacity to not only take photos but make a video in which the members of the rape crew make fun of her and refer to as the "dead girl" because they had drugged her so heavily that she was unconscious when they repeatedly defiled her. These boys are monsters.
These children were not born this way. I can't believe that Steubenville is the porthole of hell and all children born there are evil, though the photos and video of the rape crew and those involved with their cover up would suggest otherwise. The entire mentality of those involved infuriates and sickens me.
These animals became this way because the town, their parents, and the school made them feel untouchable. Apparently, football is so important that those who play are given special privileges and this snowballed into them thinking that they could do anything they wanted to. What would have been next for these boys if they weren't caught? Murder? Where would the cover-up stop? How important is football to Steubenville?
I'm wondering when the complete break down of morals happened for this town? What pisses me off almost as much as the atrocious and heinous behavior of these boys is the fact that their parents allowed them to get away with it. Do they not have any daughters in Steubenville?
I know that we cannot control everything our children do, especially teenagers. We teach our children how to behave, teach them our morals, and hope that they hold our values close. We can, however, control how we react to their bad behavior. When these parents found out, they should have immediately urged their boys to turn themselves in. This would have been the opportunity to teach their sons that there are consequences to bad behavior but maybe they prefer sons who are untouchable football stars to common rapists.
Image via YouTube
