Protecting the Perpetrator…again…

When I heard about the alleged rape that happened on a school bus in Rutherford County, I really, really tried to withhold my judgment until more about the event came out.

I have a good friend who is a school bus driver for the school system, and I respect his educated opinion on the matter, as he walks in those shoes everyday.

However, I am outraged at the response of the Rutherford County School Board Chairman Mark Byrnes…a TRAINED police officer says that the tape shows an obvious attack, and yet this guy, in order to protect the Board, says that the tape doesn’t indicate a sexual assault took place.

But…

“There were a couple times where she did say no or stop. The rest is up to interpretation.”

Ooooh, so I get it…it’s not a big deal if the girl is saying NO and STOP if it isn’t clearly a sexual assualt…

“NO” and “STOP” are not conditional.

The girl was in distress. Why even question it, Mr. Byrnes?

My daughter experienced an assault by a classmate last year in FIRST GRADE. There was the same kind of strange downplaying when I confronted the school about it. I won’t rehash it here, it’s in this post.

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?

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.

The well-being of children are at stake here, and the leadership of the County School System are more concerned about appearances and protecting the alleged perpetrator rather than rushing to help the girl who was attacked.

I would’ve rather heard Mr. Byrnes come on TV and say that he was terribly sorry for the pain and suffering this girl had gone through and that they are going to do everything they can to make her recovery and return to school as easy as possible.

That’s where the priority should be.