Dad should have shown his appreciation for the piece of garbage via .223
I feel bad for the girl, it sounds like she got put in a rotten situation. But we have a litigious society and I just don't understand why so many people think lawsuits are always the best recourse,
This doesn’t end here. The inept (at first glance) judicial stance may in fact make it worse.
I agree with the Court. She could have dropped off the cheerleading team.
Let’s see, the rapist gets two years probation, some community service and the victim is to applaud the perp.
They ought to just close this joke of a school down.
Thank you for posting your whole blog post. I clicked through.
They could have spent that $45,000 on a group of large men to go “visit” Rakheem.
In court, Bolton pleaded guilty to the misdemeanour assault of HS. He received two years of probation, community service, a fine and was required to take anger-management classes. The charge of rape was dropped, leaving him free to return to school and take up his place on the basketball team.Misdemeanour assault is what you get if you push a kid into a locker, or shoot a spit-wad at them, or push their books out of their hands. From the school's perspective, that is how they had to treat the guy. He is not a rapist, he is not a sexual predator.
Since clearly the school district does not have rules against minors who have misdemeanor convictions from attending or participating in school activities, there was nothing for them to do. The couldn't act like he was guilty of a major assault on the cheerleader, because they had no proof of that -- in fact, we have no proof of that either, only her story and the clear indication that SOMETHING happened since he did plead guilty.
It is possible he got a sweat deal because he was really good at sports. I don't know, none of the articles on this subject have mentioned how he got the plea deal -- and I don't remember a discussion of the facts. I do remember he denied the charge.
Now, if I were the school, I might have allowed her to be on the cheer squad, and not show up for basketball games (although there is no indication that he didn't also play other sports).
But really, at some point you need the cheer squad to work together, and they can't have their own agenda. If we presume she is telling the truth, we can see her point, but if it was something else, it isn't much different from any number of things that could cause people to not want to cheer.
Would you excuse a cheerleader who caught the guy cheating? Who knocked her up and then dumped her? Who dated her but then tried to convert her to his religion, and trashed her faith?
None of those are as bad as being raped. But we don't know she was raped, and we know the school couldn't treat it like a rape. She certainly had avenues within the school to pursue bullying and other charges within the school system -- I don't know if she did this. I know my son just went through one of those for a childish physical prank; no cops, but he was suspended from a club for a month. I would think an assault might mean something, although it was off-campus.
Anyone else thing we have lost complete control over our schools?
So if the school demanded she cheer of BHO she would be obliged? Oh wait some schools already do that. Well how about if she had to cheer for UBL as a “mouthpiece” for the school?
WARNING for those who agree with the courts and the rest of us, you might be surrendering more than your 1st Amendment rights when you sign anything. I don't recall anywhere in the Constitution where the government can surreptitiously eliminate your rights.
Apparently winning basketball games is more important than the rape of a young woman.
“Justice” in that town is a sad sick joke - and apparently the people of the town WANT IT THAT WAY.
Sick sick sick.
This rapist should have castrated then shot.
Sickening
I thought this was preposterous until I read the money quote, one line from the end of the article:
“In September last year, a federal appeals court upheld those decisions and announced that HS must also reimburse the school sistrict $45,000, for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit against it”
My brain can compartmentalize this issue into separate elements. The rape is not even the issue here. It is irrelevant. Her actions at the game are irrelevant. The issue is bain’s action and the frivolous lawsuit. I’d like to see a lot more of this.
Raped again. First at the party, then by the school, then by the courts.
Parents should learn from this travesty to keep their daughters out of cheer-leading squads, mixed parties, and public schools if possible.
Does anyone consider it a double standard that we know the accused student’s name and see his picture, but his accuser’s identity is not revealed?
You’ve got to be kidding me.
The U.S. Supreme Court can’t be bothered with determining whether ObamaCare is legal but they do have time for this?
So a girl folds her arms and refuses to cheer and it gets all the way to the Supreme Court??? Ridiculous. We are toast as a country.
People are having a hard time focusing on what this story is about. The back story is the rape. Another back story is her refusing to applaud the player that attacked her.
The story is this: A person in a particular role refused to participate in her role because of a conscientious objection. The school removed her from the role because she would not carry it out. Now, she may have had a good reason for not carrying it out, but the mere fact that she didn’t carry it out gave them reason to remove her from that particular role.
So far so good?
Here is where it went south: She instigated a frivolous lawsuit for them removing her from the squad. She lost and the lawsuit was deemed frivolous, therefore she is liable for their court costs.
And the lawsuit WAS frivolous.
It is stories like this that lead me to believe vigilantism is the only way to go, at times, because you cannot trust the justice system to give you justice.
If I were the father, I’d be tempted to level the school one night, once my daughter became 18.
Let’s see if the school can collect on that judgement.
Suspending her from cheerleading was a insensitive act of cruelty. They should have understood that her action was born of the trauma of rape, not of revenge, and excused her action this one time. But making this kid pay $45,000. to the school as reimbursement for their legal fees is a travesty of justice. She had a bonafide case in appealing the school's action against her, because the school had no regard for the pyschological trauma she suffers from the sexual assault this guy perpetrated on her. It is inhuman to expect a girl to applaud a guy who raped her, no matter who she 'speaks' for. The school could have easily avoided the $45,000. legal fees anyway, simply by having a little compassion for this girl and make a public apology for suspending her, then offer her the job back if she'd agree to cheer everyone on her team. Doing this would have restored the girl's dignity and offered a solution that likely would have satisfied both parties. But what they did showed that the public schools could care less about the students, it's all about their POWER.
As for the Court, their decision is nothing more than a cruel reprisal for her daring to stand up to a government run institution. In demanding she applaud a man who raped her, they asked her to do something that flies in the face of human nature. Even as a so-called 'school spokesperson' she likely froze and just could not do it. But then again, public schools teach all about homosexual perversion and expect the children to work through that grossly abnormal human behavior, so this isn't surprising. The government has lost its way and has brought America back to the dark ways of pre-Constitution tyrants.
In a way, there will be justice. The kid is an athlete, not likely a scholar. He may even be good enough for collegiate, but probably not NBA.
If he’s good enough, he’ll get a college scholarship. He’ll take a bunch of minimally difficult classes and perhaps get a worthless diploma from his college that’s worthless in the marketplace and then have to work at a minimum wage job, if he can get one.
That’s the typical black male athlete experience who isn’t lucky if he’s not good enough to go pro.
Meanwhile, if she keeps her head together, she’ll likely graduate with a marketable degree and have a good life.
A couple things occur to me.
First, the case had to have been pursued a long time to rack up $45,000 in costs. And the story seems to confirm this. When you push a matter that far, you take calculated risks. I would think this is one of them, and that counsel would have let them know.
Second, she is under 18. I’m having trouble believing that she has any personal liability for any of this. I have to believe the risks fell on the parents. I guess I could be wrong but I think the headline is probably a bit inaccurate.