Community Continues to Grapple With Rape - NYTimes.com:
"As Richmond High School tried to absorb the wrenching reality of a gang rape of a student on school grounds, the predominant reactions — horror or sympathy or even fear — were understood by the school’s principal, Julio Franco."
But there was another reaction that Mr. Franco has difficulty processing: sentiments like those voiced by Fonz Leon, a junior, as he stood in the school parking lot one recent afternoon: “She got drunk one time and messed with the wrong crowd and provoked some dude and got raped, that’s it.”
Mr. Franco said: “Even girls said this was O.K. because she went on her own. I tell them, ‘What if this was your sister? What if this was your mom?’ Then they realize, ‘Oh.’ ”
It has been two weeks since a 16-year-old girl was raped after a homecoming dance by at least six young men in front of a group of onlookers. Yet reactions like Fonz’s linger. It is as if some of the virulent culture that gave rise to the attack itself, with all its cruelty and degradation, is defiantly asserting itself, despite efforts to contain it.
"As Richmond High School tried to absorb the wrenching reality of a gang rape of a student on school grounds, the predominant reactions — horror or sympathy or even fear — were understood by the school’s principal, Julio Franco."
But there was another reaction that Mr. Franco has difficulty processing: sentiments like those voiced by Fonz Leon, a junior, as he stood in the school parking lot one recent afternoon: “She got drunk one time and messed with the wrong crowd and provoked some dude and got raped, that’s it.”
Mr. Franco said: “Even girls said this was O.K. because she went on her own. I tell them, ‘What if this was your sister? What if this was your mom?’ Then they realize, ‘Oh.’ ”
It has been two weeks since a 16-year-old girl was raped after a homecoming dance by at least six young men in front of a group of onlookers. Yet reactions like Fonz’s linger. It is as if some of the virulent culture that gave rise to the attack itself, with all its cruelty and degradation, is defiantly asserting itself, despite efforts to contain it.