See, It Was Rape, But Not the Bad Kind of Rape, Not the Rapey Rape
I just watched a new clip (which I assume will come up here later) about the Rutherford County School Board president who at a school board meeting tonight, for some reason, felt compelled to announce that, after viewing the rape of a girl caught on a school bus camera, that he was disappointed in the gossip because, though it was clearly a rape, it wasn’t a rape. In other words, the dude forced his hand inside her as she begged for someone to stop him, but he didn’t force his penis inside her so… well, you know.
I’ve got nothing.
Edited to add: Still no clip, but via Ginger, I found this story over at WKRN. I quote for you the particularly douche-baggy part.
But Byrnes said, “There were a couple times where she did say no or stop. The rest is up to interpretation.”
And according to Byrnes’ interpretation he said, “Nothing I could see indicated a sexual assault was taking place.”
But police detective Wayne Lawson says after watching the video, it was clear that an assault had occurred.
That’s what led to the rape and sexual battery charges police filed against Riverdale senior Brandon Stover.
Even the Rutherford County school spokesperson told the media he saw the girl ask for help.
That’s right, girls and boys, you can say “no” and “stop” and ask for help and somehow that doesn’t constitute a sexual assault, even though having someone jam his hand into your vagina counts as rape under the law. I don’t know who gave Dr. Byrnes his PhD but they ought to revoke it.
Edited again to add some more: Elizabeth Ulrich, over at Pith, is also all over this. Because there’s nothing more heartwarming than a bunch of powerful men sitting around watching video of something unpleasant happening to a 14 year old girl and then passing judgment in public about whether they think it was traumatic enough to count as rape.
Edited one more time to link to the WSMV story: Here’s the link to the WSMV video.
Filed under: About Town
you know, I just saw that same thing on the news and almost threw the remote out of (for lack of a better word) SHEER DISGUST.
And actually, I thought about you B, and somehow knew you’d touch on this - thank God you did… so I can vent!
WHAT IN F**K?!?!?!?!?!?
I wanted to shake that sorry excuse of a school board member and say “Well, if it was YOUR LITTLE GIRL would it fit the kind of rape that you are NOT comfortable with — because you are OBVIOUSLY comfortable with a 14 year old screaming ‘NO’ repeatedly and fighting back - all the while going on television to argue that this behavior isn’t that bad.”
And here’s my 2nd source of outrage: where were the parents — all the parents of girls AND boys who should have been there to voice their disgust and demand the resignation of this a**hole?
You know, there are degrees of other crimes. There’re all kinds of levels of violence charges and murder charges and theft charges. But so far, having different levels of rape charges - even mentally, like “gray rape” vs. “date rape” vs. “rapey rape” - just doesn’t seem to be helping anyone.
Except maybe. People who rape.
I mean, what are we supposed to learn from this? That women who are manually raped should be grateful it wasn’t worse? That it only is worse if it involves a penis? That only high-level, physically damaging scary rapes will be considered “rape” and everything else will be considered “complaining”?
Well, people will complain and the official will go on record saying that isnt what he meant, or he will issue the standard nonapologetic apology, and we’ll see if anyone learned anything, but I’m not optimistic.
B, I would hold your fire on this one.
Apparently, there is much more to this story.
Leaving ominous comments like that is frowned upon Slarti.
Slarti, either cough up what you know or don’t bring it up.
I’m going by what the news story showed, which was the head of the school board trying to argue that, after watching the tape, he was convinced she was raped, but not raped. Am I typifying that wrong?
I think what he’s up to here is clear. He’s trying to deflect criticism away from the school system. He’s saying “Hey, there isn’t any reason that any adult on that bus should have known something bad was happening.” but in the course of his statement, he revealed two things–one is that the kids on the bus looked to him well behaved. Well, if the kids on the bus looked well behaved, why didn’t the bus driver notice the one kid crying for help? And two, he said that, in the video, at least one other kid comes over to try to stop the assault, which means that what was going on was noticable enough that others knew it was going on.
Let’s just say for a second that I’m concerned with something larger than this douche-bag reviewing evidence in an ongoing criminal case and reporting about it in public in order to make it seem as if his interests have acted reasonably.
If it turns out that this 18 year old is exonerated, the Rutherford County School Board President is on film as saying that a rape did occur. That’s a lawsuit.
Or the 18 year old goes to jail, in which case the victim and her family now have the School Board President admiting that, on a bus full of well behaved students an attack occured disturbing enough that other students tried to stop it and the one adult on the bus didn’t notice. That sounds to me like a lawsuit.
So, what? What do you know that makes that any different?
This either occured as reported, or it didn’t. I haven’t watched the tape of the incident, but i don’t see how there could be “more to this.”
I’m not interested in seeing a lawsuit behind this, and would not be interested even if it had been my daughter. Driving a school bus full of kids requires complete attention to what is happening on the road ahead, and, behind. I can see any number of things happening that a driver could be unaware of, so I don’t want to sit here and pass judgement.
The physical assault was rape. If there is penetration of any kind, its rape. The statement made by that school official is inexcusable.
Is anybody noticing a pattern here? Aunt B, Mack, etc., do you all remember what happened to my daughter last year? In Rutherford County?
Remember how it took me practically DEMANDING that the principal get the boy out of the classroom that day?
What the fuck is up with Rutherford County?
I am so glad you addressed this today. I know your message can get out to many more people than I can, and I’m going to link to you shortly.
[...] Aunt B is right on target with her post today and more so in her comment thread: I’m going by what the news story showed, which was the head of the school board trying to argue that, after watching the tape, he was convinced she was raped, but not raped. Am I typifying that wrong? [...]
And the fucktarded school board says their buses are safe. But they formed a committee.
Raise some rabble, Rutherford County.
So if someone shoved an umbrella up Byrnes’ ass, it wouldn’t count as rape, right?
So what is the difference between sexual assault and rape?
[...] I honestly don’t know whether to give up, cry or fly down to Tennessee to kick some superinten…: But Byrnes said, “There were a couple times where she did say no or stop. The rest is up to interpretation.” [...]
Yes, Slarti, if you know something more about Mark’s comments, please explain as much as you can or provide a link that does.
I have known Mark Byrnes for nearly 30 years, and he is a stellar individual. I also read the Channel 2 story linked above, then read the story from the DNJ written by a reporter renowned for his obsessiveness with accurate quotes. Here it is.
Because y’all know me as a veteran reporter in a former life, I know y’all are going to be surprised that I say it appears that Mark’s comments have been taken out of context and/or misinterpreted, but that’s what I’m saying. Yes. I’m shocked, too.
But in reading the DNJ story, it’s clear (and I can’t believe I said that about a DNJ story, but anyway …) that Mark is explaining what HE COULD SEE ON THE TAPE. From the video camera’s perspective, it is difficult to see exactly what happened, apparently. That might explain in part why a) the driver and/or the kids might not have realized what was going on and helped and b) why those who have seen the tape might have different interpretations of it.
Mark’s statement, “But nothing I could see indicated that a sexual assault was taking place,” appears to have had emphasis placed on the wrong words: “a sexual assault” rather than “nothing I could see.”
I was not at the meeting, I did not hear him say it. I don’t know what words he emphasized in that particular part of the statement. But the rest of the DNJ article supports the emphasis on WHAT HE COULD SEE — in other words, what the activity was in the sight line of the camera — and not that he’s dismissing what happened as less than a crime. He can’t speak to whether it was a sexual assault because he can’t see it on the tape.
If I recall correctly, the officials and investigators have said the charge came after reviewing the tape AND talking to the little girl. In other words, the little girl told investigators the boy put his hand down her pants, etc., and by looking at the tape, the investigators could only confirm that they could see a ruckus and hear her hollering “stop.” (FYI to W: Sexual assault is improper touching of another person, generally her or his clothed or unclothed genitalia, for sexual gratification. Rape is any unlawful “intrusion, however slight” of someone’s body or any object into another’s orifices for sexual gratification.
As I said, Mark is one of the finest men I know. He’s not one to speak without thinking carefully, and he’s certainly not one to dismiss or play down a potential crime against a child for whose well-being he and the other board members and school system are responsible just for liability’s sake. I was glad to see him elected to the school board and subsequently become its chairman because of the prospects of cleaning up the good ol’ idiocy that’s been the hallmark of the county system for so long. It’s that system that’s let idiocy like Ginger’s experience happen, and it’s that system that helped let the little jerk charged with this attack think that he could get away with it.
B, I’m sorry to have hijacked your bandwidth, but I just can’t stand to see someone pilloried for what appears to be a willful media misinterpretation. He ought to demand that they run a tape of what he really said so everyone can either blame him properly or go after the system as it should.
But…but…what is the point of DOWNPLAYING the incident in ANY manner? She was attacked; she was obviously in distress.
I just watched the video of his statement. He reads it and says it was not “the type of ‘rape’ that most people seem to assume it was…” and that we should “put this event into the proper context…”
What is the “proper context” for what this girl went through? He is classifying different types of rape? Isn’t ANY invasion bad?
He may be a wonderful man, but his attitude about this incident seriously concerns me.
No problem, grandfille. I’m glad to hear he’s not the supreme douche-bag the media makes him out to be, but I’ve linked to the WSMV story that ran last night so you can see that he comes across as sounding very ambiguous about the rape and not as if he’s trying to stick up for the bus driver and other kids on the bus (as it appears he’s trying to do in the Daily News Journal). I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt about his intentions, because I trust you and respect your judgment on people. But I’ve got to tell you, I’m wary of the fact that he seems to be making a distinction between this and rape rape–he says, “was not the type of rape that most people seem to assume it was.”
She supposedly repeatedly said no and asked for help and the dude allegedly assaulted her anyway. That seems to me to be just about as clear cut as a rape can be.
Or, what Ginger said while I was busy saying this shit.
One things for sure in school systems, CYA!!! They’ll spend more time and effort on this than on what they should be doing.
But, if you want to home school you kids that’s a bad thing!
Thank you for updating and posting that link, B. I’m glad there’s video so we can hear what Mark actually said.
Ginger, yes, you’re right. No one in his or her right mind would or should want to minimize or dismiss what happened.
I cannot speak to anything else at this point. I’m still pondering the tape and wondering how much of that statement was the school board attorney talking.
[...] Ya know, just when I start to think these feminists are blowing things out of proportion and acting all crazy (I mean, really crazy), Aunt B. has to go and remind me that, yes, there really are just some stupid men out there. [...]