A former freshman at Culver City High School in California, who was 14-years-old at the time, was allegedly raped by three upperclassman football players last year. She is now suing the players, the school district, and over 100 other people for bullying her during the incident.
18-year-old, Jeremy Weaver and two other assaulters (who remain nameless because they were also minors at the time) persuaded the victim to cut class with them and then unsuspectedly began to rape her in the school’s parking lot. She alleged that the rapes spanned from December 4th to December 22, 2013 throughout the school’s campus. She was also secretly videotaped during the attacks and footage was sent to other students which began unbearable harassment and bullying over what they believed was her consensual promiscuity. The girl, only named as A.S. in the lawsuit, was harassed and bullied so badly she contemplated suicide, transferred schools twice, had to move to Chicago, and also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The victim describes her assaulters, “As starting players, assailants were in peak physical condition, extremely strong and physically intimidating.” She was threatened into not telling anyone and even when she reported the incidents, two of the alleged rapists tried to force her to recant her statement.
According to NBC Los Angeles, “The lawsuit states that the district was ‘negligent’ and ‘failed to provide supervision.’ The district, according to the suit, should have known about the conduct of the alleged aggressors and was therefore ‘aware of the potential danger and direct threat’ to all students, including the victim, and ‘failed to take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect students.”
Culver City School District’s Superintendent, Dave Larose released this statement,
“We recently became aware of a lawsuit that was filed against the Culver City Unified District regarding an incident in December, 2013. CCUSD and our entire community believe the health, welfare and safety of our students is paramount, and we responded immediately and cooperatively to this incident with the Culver City Police Department. Our district will remain unwavering in our commitment to protect the children we serve and respond aggressively to any action that challenges this priority.”
Jeremy Weaver, who has had a history of disciplinary problems prior to the attacks, was arrested January 2014 and pleaded no contest and was convicted of three counts of felony oral copulation of a minor and and one count of dissuading a witness from reporting a crime. He only received five years probation.
This is an extremely sad story, as a freshman this would be the last thing you would think would happen to you. I could just image what the parents on both sides are feeling. There is always three sides to a story though, what he said, what she said, and the truth. We just hope that the girl and everyone else involved will be able to learn and grow past this. Let’s chat below what are your thoughts on this controversial situation?
Sources Sited: DailyNews.com, KTLA5.com, LATimes.com
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