Rape in Top Private Schools

            As I was looking through some news articles this past weekend, I was intrigued by a title that read “Teen Rape Case Rocks Sidewell Friends, Obama Kids’ School” (Crocker and Suebsaeng). Now I had never heard of Sidewell Friends School, but the idea that there may have been a rape in the school our president sees fit for his children to attend was quite shocking.

Photo Illustration from The Daily Beast

As I clicked and read through the article I found more puzzling information. Apparently a teenage female student had reported she was raped on campus this past Wednesday. She reported being forced into vaginal, oral, and anal sex. The case is still very new and ongoing. There has been an investigation launched on the campus, and it has already been shown that drugs and alcohol were not involved in the rape. Since the case is so recent and the school is currently on spring break, details on the case are currently sparse. What I did find interesting is the history of the school in relation to the reported rape. Sidewell Friends is an elite private school. The school prides itself in instilling “Quaker values and human-rights awareness” (Crocker and Suebsaeng). In addition the school “has for decades put an extremely high premium on non-academic education such as sexual-assault prevention”(Crocker andSuebsaeng). “Sidewell is an environment where administrators and educators often go out of their way to teach their students about the traumas and consequences of sexual violence. It is also a school where the principle of “believing the victim” is well inculcated” (Crocker and Suebsaeng). However, even with the push for sexual assault prevention and education, the school’s record is less than squeaky clean.  Six years ago, a faculty member was found to be a sexual predator. Shifting the focus to top private schools, just last summer we saw a story on a sexual assault concerning two former students from St. Paul’s School. It is interesting to see that even where we would least expect rape (top private schools), cases still appear.

            Although we have been focusing in class more on the stories of the assault, I think this article adds an interesting mix to our conversation. I think looking at the idea of if awareness and prevention have any affect, and the idea of assessing the community involved in the rape, raises an interesting new concept to our discussion. Before reading this article, I would have assumed that most rapes happened in less well-off neighborhoods. I think our discussion on Kesha also adds to this idea that rape can and does happen in all different communities around us. I also think it is interesting that the school does so much for prevention and they still have rape issues. It makes me question whether the prevention methods being used are affective, or if other alternatives need to be explored. In class we talked about how our class had enlightened all of us to the many difficulties surrounding rape. Do you think prevention in the form of a class should be mandatory? Do you think prevention has any benefits? These questions and more came into my mind as I read this article, which changed my outlook on the effect and reach of rape.

Mitch Albom's Rape Opinion

            On a normal morning drive, I enjoy listening to the funny commentary of Mojo in the Morning. I didn’t think that a serious story of rape would ever make it on to the more comical radio show. However, this was just the case. I first heard of the story of Mitch Albom’s personal opinion on the settlement of Jameis Winston’s rape victim on my morning drive. After catching pieces of the story, I decided to investigate it further. I found an article on Fox 2 News, that not only told the original story, but also had an update.

http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/83867519-story#

            According to the story, Mitch Albom was casting his opinion on ESPN’s Sports Reporters, when the topic of Jameis Winston came up. The Jameis Winston rape case had concluded with his victim agreeing to take a $950,000 settlement. Mitch Albom spoke to this stating, “I'd feel a lot happier about this, if the woman took that money and gave it to charity and said, 'That's not what this was about.'  I am always suspect when people end up saying, 'Well, I'm going to take it'" (Fox 2 News). This comment caused tons of backlash on Albom, thinking that he was calling the victim a liar. People were very upset the Albom would even think to tell the victim what to do with her money. Albom replied to the backlash by trying to explain himself. His opinion had not been meant to belittle the victim, but to try to get to the point that this case should not be focused upon money, but that of the sexual assault that occurred. He had hoped that stating this would make people realize that if the money was not a part of the equation, the real tragedy of the sexual assault could be talked about more.

            In my opinion, when I saw the video of Mitch Albom’s original comment, I did not take it in a bad light. I understood that Albom’s comment didn’t want the focus of rape to be turned onto the focus of money. However, I know my opinion was not widely shared, but you can form your own, by watching the original video here.

            I think this story brings an interesting spin to our class discussion. We have talked about many topics regarding perpetrators and victims, but we haven’t really touched on the idea that a rape case can be settled through an amount of money. I understand the justice system wanting to give the victim something to try to make up for everything she has experienced, but I’m not sure money is always the right solution. There is truly no real justice for someone who has experienced rape, and the ways they try to find peace with what happened to them varies quite a bit. I think that until we can find a way to decrease the number of rape cases that happen, we should turn our attention to prevention, and not necessarily to how each victim chooses to settle and move on.