Today, a guilty verdict was handed down in the rape case involving a 16 year old girl and two teenage boys (one 16, one 17 years old) who played football for Steubenville High School. Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond have been sentenced to a minimum of one year in a youth correctional institute with a determination for a longer sentence coming from child service experts, as per Judge Thomas Lipps. Mays received an additional sentence of one year for transmission of nude photos and the two boys will have to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. The two boys had raped a classmate when she was passed out drunk during a night of traveling to several parties.
The girl had testified that she woke up the next day without having any recollection of the night's events, losing consciousness after vomiting outside the house of one party. She was surrounded by three males in the bed and said she couldn't find her underwear or cell phone. The trial was very difficult as the prosecution and defense brought up classmates to testify proving or disproving whether the young girl gave consent to the boys to engage in sexual activities that night. A great part of the information for both prosecution and defense was "he said, she said" accounts and high school gossip where each had friends (now former friends) testify against the other.
Young athletes who have not been following the case should review the sequence of events and all news articles. Much of the story may be familiar to each and every High School student across the nation. It is of the beauty in athletic performance and success and the by-product of "hero worship" from townspeople, classmates and local officials. Its moral is a sobering one for young men and women who wish to have fun in the prime of their lives and are at the start of growing and maturing into men and women.
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