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    NooYawkBrendan O'Connor
    6/08/16 10:06am

    This indifference to sexual assault is extremely disturbing. It all adds to this rape culture the entire world seems to have. When people are actually standing up and saying, hey! 20 miniutes of assaulting a woman shouldn’t end up ruining a mans entire life... there’s some serious, SERIOUS problems with our society. It’s not nearly as bad as India or Middle East but that doesn’t make it acceptable. And don’t get me started on the fucking disgusting pedophiles.

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      Hip Brooklyn StereotypeNooYawk
      6/08/16 10:11am

      Amen. Brock Turner’s father’s comments made me realize just how little people (read: men) understand the severity of sexual assault and how to deal with it accordingly (or preventing it from happening). As if the duration of the incident in question has anything remotely to do with the corresponding length of the prison sentence.

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      EvenBaggierTrousers4NooYawk
      6/08/16 10:25am

      This indifference to sexual assault is extremely disturbing.

      Actually, I don’t think it’s indifference. I think it’s a conscious effort on the system’s part to avoid lawsuits, etc. So...

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    PhyzzygalBrendan O'Connor
    6/08/16 10:39am

    As a teacher in NYC with a lot of friends at various schools around the city, I can say that almost all of us have stories about principals ignoring or downplaying assaults. Of girls being told that it’s just “your word against his” and then being offered a transfer rather than any sort of justice. i recently had a friend leave a school because a boy there had twice been accused of rape and each time, the girls left the school. She was reprimanded by her AP when she wouldn’t let the boy take a pass to go to the bathroom (both assaults happened in a bathroom) without an escort.

    The bloated bureaucracy of the NYC DoE makes it really easy to sweep things under the rug. Combined with good old fashioned rape culture, it’s a nightmare for victims.

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      pewpstickPhyzzygal
      6/08/16 10:48am

      The problem with your example is that you’re assuming that the accusors in this case are in fact victims. That can’t be determined simply by an accusation.

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      helgaperezpewpstick
      6/08/16 1:58pm

      The problem with your example is that you’re assuming that the accusors in this case are in fact victims. That can’t be determined simply by an accusation.

      If there is a pattern of complaints, administrators should take that into account. Also, if they are told that criminal activity took place on school property, they are obligated to report that to the police so the incident(s) can be investigated.

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    AnastraceBrendan O'Connor
    6/08/16 10:14am

    As a member of a major university under investigation for misconduct regarding for sexual assaults, rapes, and criminal sexual conduct, I can most definitely say, this isn’t limited to NYC, or public schools. It’s practically part of the education system at this point.

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      helgaperezAnastrace
      6/08/16 10:52am

      Why would the ‘education system’ have anything to do with a crime that should be up to the police and justice system to take care of?

      The education system can still take steps to protect a victim while the case works its way through the courts (which can take years).

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      Anastracehelgaperez
      6/08/16 11:06am

      They also stonewall investigations, refuse to turn over documents, deny FOIA requests, and/or refuse to act on reported rapes or sexual misconduct. I’m just going to grab a random article on this, but not the one linked to my university. Here is an excerpt as well, but again not linking to the article. (if you wish, just copy/paste the excerpt)

      ———————

      yet about 11 percent of all students— male, female, undergraduates and graduate students—report some form of nonconsensual sexual behavior during the past year. That unwanted behavior could include touching, kissing, fondling or penetration.

      The survey also found that 9.7 percent of all female students—12 percent of female undergraduates—experienced nonconsensual sexual penetration.

      ————————-

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article…

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    benjaminalloverBrendan O'Connor
    6/08/16 10:36am

    “Nothing is more important than the safety of all students and staff, and we have policies in place that ensure that incidents are reported, investigated and appropriately addressed,”

    Lies. Up is down and black is white. Why even bother spewing this fiction when nobody remotely believes any of it, especially NYC DOE? Sure, I hope they’re sued and that it provides incentives for punishing rapists rather than children who are raped going forward, but it would be really great if the pieces of human garbage who made these decisions were named, shamed, and fired. Into the sun. What kind of fucking sadist would treat a child that way? NYE DOE: defending monstrous cruelty, covering their asses, fooling absolutely fucking nobody.

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      MizJenkinsbenjaminallover
      6/08/16 10:45am
      GIF

      I share your disgust. This is absolutely pattern and practice nationwide. It’s in fact part of a larger pattern and practice in which Black girls are penalized tenfold for all manner of infractions, including infractions that aren’t even infractions and yes, also including infractions committed by others against them.

      I had plenty of first-hand experience with this as early as kindergarten. That year they sent me to the 2nd grade classroom for reading so that I would be properly challenged. Being two years younger and the only brown kid in the class made me an obvious target for bullies. When my father complained to the school about the gang of little White boys who tormented me every day (fuck you Tony-with-the-fossil-bone wherever you are), they told him that they would have to find something else to do with me since I was “severely gifted”. Those were the words they used. Like reading above grade level was a dangerous or disabling condition. Their solution was to have me sit in the hall and read by myself everyday, which I suppose I preferred to being hit over the head with hard objects but heaven forbid they make any attempt to punish that behavior rather than paint me as the problem.

      That was 30 years ago and I see little has changed. Kudos to the attorney who is working with these families and attempting to force an investigation. Let’s hope at least some marginal good comes of airing the problem.

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      benjaminalloverMizJenkins
      6/08/16 11:08am

      Aw. Sorry that you were treated that way.

      Aside: treating gifted learners like some sort of classroom contaminant is very common if not universal- certainly they did that at my elementary school too. If you think about it from the POV that half the school’s mandate is teaching socialization it makes no sense at all. But if you think about it from the perspective of a lazy teacher, a too-smart kid is a real danger of being a pain-in-the ass, so better to have them sit by themselves.

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    DrWhoSoccerStarBrendan O'Connor
    6/08/16 10:28am

    So a student with a “history of sexual assault” is allowed back in school while the victim is told to stay away. I’m no genius, but that is fucked up policy.

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      CharitybDrWhoSoccerStar
      6/08/16 10:47am

      The victim is complaining, the attacker isn’t. It’s the path of least resistance and it explains why a lot of other school districts and institutions are more aggressive about finding a way to get rid of people who complain about assaults. It’s the same reason why government agencies and corporations sometimes lash out at whistleblowers rather than the people doing the things that the whistleblower is pointing out.

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      DrWhoSoccerStarCharityb
      6/08/16 10:56am

      Don’t they think expelling the rapist would save them from having to deal with future victims? I just feel like it should be common sense that getting rid of 1 rapist instead of multiple victims would be the easier and more ethical way to go. Sure, I don’t run any schools or big businesses, but come on.

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    EvenBaggierTrousers4Brendan O'Connor
    6/08/16 10:18am

    An aside: I’m proud of you folks for not taking the troll bait below.

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      IAMBlastedBiggsLostBurnerBrendan O'Connor
      6/08/16 11:23am

      “Nothing is more important than the safety of all students and staff, and we have policies in place that ensure that incidents are reported, investigated and appropriately addressed,”

      Y’know, I swear, if institutions such as the New York DOE put a fucking fraction of the effort into actually doing what they say they’re doing, problems like this could be handled much more effectively. Fucking stop worrying about the vague PR-speak and protect the students.

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        The Original SunshineBrendan O'Connor
        6/08/16 5:07pm

        I can personally attest to the fact that this has been going on for more than 40 years. I have to laugh that this is suddenly news.

        In Jr. High School I was molested for 2 years by an older boy. It ended when he and another boy attempted to rape me in the stairwell one day when I had stayed after school. They were caught by a teacher. I don’t know if he would have kept molesting me because I was pulled out of the school for other reasons, some of which were directly related to racism, others to fights that I started getting into with other girls.

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