There is a sharp disconnect between two prank stories this morning. When Tyrell Morton put an inflatable girl in the girl’s bathroom at his high school, he ended up with a felony charge and a potential jail sentence of eight years. However, when three eighth-grade girls from Dunbar Middle school in Florida tackled an 11-year-old boy and stripped him naked (and proceeded to videotape him and taunt him), they were let go as a simple prank in bad taste.
In the video, the girls stop the boy to chat and then hold him down, strip him naked, and mock him. The video was put on YouTube.
The boy is a fifth grader at Ray Pottorf Elementary. One girl faced a single misdemeanor battery charges, but it was abandoned when the boy’s mother has refused to press charges. I commend her for her restraint, but I wonder what the charge would be if a group of boys attacked and stripped a girl in public, videotaped her, and mocked her.
I tend to disfavor criminal charges in such cases. However, it seems clear that the girls should be expelled and subject to the most severe forms of school punishment. What I find interesting, however, is the sharply different treatment given such acts by boys as opposed to girls. Indeed, I doubt seriously this would have even confined to a misdemeanor if the genders were reversed or that, with the existence of the videotape, the failure to press charges would be determinative. If the police witness or have evidence of a felony, they do not necessarily require the consent of the victim. Once again, I would not take this to the criminal system. Yet, I am surprised that the articles only refer to the possibility of parental punishment as opposed to immediate expulsion and other measures, such as denial of social clubs, graduation etc.
Jonathan Turley
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magiee simi
cinter maggie
cinter maggie i agreed u
Good girls
We know the bullies are girls who live in Cypress Landing in Fort Myers. Is there anyway to find out theur names? If residents are afraid of them, the names could be posted anonymously to a blog.
According to the State attorney’s office, the case is not closed; they may file charges against the bullies. State attorneys are elected officials and must consider public opinion. If you think bullies are allowed to get away with too much in Lee County, tell it to the state attorney at http://sao.cjis20.org/Lee.htm
also the attorney general at http://myfloridalegal.com/contact
Please email them and encourage others to do so. We cannot allow this injustice to stand. It was not publicized, but the victim is mentally handicapped. Make sure any handicapped advocate you may know is aware of this.
Girl, 11, Raped By 3 Boys, Ages 8 and 9
November 19, 2007
Acworth, Ga. – Three boys, one 8 and two 9-years old, are in a Cobb County youth detention center after being charged with the kidnap and rape of an 11-year-old girl. The girl told police they had all been playing outside the West Ridge Apartments before she was taken into the nearby woods against her will and assaulted.
“The three boys have been charged with crimes ranging from rape, sexual assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment,” said Capt. Wayne Bennard of the Acworth Police Department.
Young females these days have too much testosterone while young males have too much estrogen. It’s all part of an intentional population control process to emasculate men while making women more masculine. This situation is just one of the symptoms. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. Just look at the appearance of young men and women these days and observe their behaviors.
I’ll pass along any info. I get. I still think the girls should get some kind of punishment, be it time and/or fines. As far as being registered as a sex offender, it has already happened and according to law, they must be registered as sex offenders. I don’t believe anyone is given an option when they do something that requires them to be registered. It just happens because its the law. Jail time would give this whole thing closure and it will hopefully teach the girls that they don’t need to ever do something like this to another individual. There are conesquenses for what they have done.
FFLP, Please keep us informed about what’s happening. It’s been 2 months
since the terrible incident occurred and the State of Florida has done nothing about it that I know of. I very much agree with the boy’s mother
and still hope the girls will not go to jail or be on a list of sex offenders.
The boy’s mother writes:
“I am writing in hopes that my response to the media attention given by my son’s story can help the people of fort myers better understand the situations surrounding the video the three girls posted on youtube. I want to start by saying these are not random felon serial sex offenders that decided to brutally or maliciously attack my son. They are children that are 12 and 13 years old. I agree they need to be punished, I agree what they did was so totally wrong in every way. I don’t know however if they should hang for it. He’s my son and after losing a child to illness, he is my life. People that know me know that I have a compassionate heart, they know I’m a strong, fair and intelligent person. My hope was that the media attention would show these girls what they did was wrong, My hope was that seeing how upset the community, friends, classmates and most of all their parents are would change these girls from the inside out. All parties involved are suffering right now. I can’t imagine that these parents are not crushed by having their children subjected to this negative attention as well. I wanted the community as a whole to look at this and make some changes. And see that this can happen to anyone and that we need to teach our children compassion, teach them how to treat others, sit down with our children and say this is not right. My family is hurting with the back lash and harsh judgments in regards to me not pressing criminal charges. I’m not a bad mother. My son is my first and only priority. The hope was to as a society and community benefit from seeing what those girls did and make a difference. We could learn from this and learn how to be better people, better human beings… I’m glad that we are not all judged on the things that we did when were young and stupid because where would we be? Punishment will be served but the punishment is not for me to decide.”
I’m not sure what these girls have done prior to their attack on the boy but that is irrelevant. They need some sort of punishment because of what they did. Bottom line. They should get the same punishment a boy would get if he did the same thing. No bias.
N Vale,
Your son was lucky to have you as his father. Others might not have been so proactive.
Some years ago, I received a school report that my 7th grader son “was involved in an episode of sexual harassment, was punished, and will have this report in his record through graduation.”
Angrily, I asked my son what happened. He told me that he was eating lunch with 3 male friends. Four girls passed their table. One girl said to one boy, “I heard you’re a dickless wonder.” The boy replied, “And you’re a titless bitch.” Keeping a straight face, I asked my son what he’d done. He said, “I kept eating my sandwich.” He further explained that all of the kids attended a sexual harassment assembly weeks later. After the assembly, the girls filed a sexual harassment complaint over the earlier incident. The boys were detained after school for two hours of counselling.
Thinking my son was minimizing, I visited the female principal. I told her my son’s account and waited for more damning details. She said, “That’s accurate.” I asked, “Why are we having this conversation?” She said, “You made the appointment.”
I explained to the principal that her report – “was involved in an episode of sexual harassment, was punished, and will have this report in his record through graduation” – would damn my son to a conclusion without details. Having been a military recruiter, I knew this “report” would keep my son out of military service and, probably, civilian jobs or colleges.
I visited the administration’s EEO officer. She explained that a girl had just been awarded $50K for grafitti about her in a boys’ bathroom. The school took harassment seriously. She alleged there was pushing, leering, and “posturing,” according to the longer full report. When I asked to see it, she said I couldn’t. When I asked to see it with names redacted, she said the principal hadn’t forwarded it. I asked what posturing was. She said that by staying at the lunch table, my son lent his presence to the other boys while they intimidated the girls. I said, “You expect a 13-year-old boy to express shock and dismay, while moving to a different table?” She said yes. I said, “As his father, I’m incredibly proud that he was capable of keeping his mouth shut, without leering, commenting, or laughing.”
After several follow-ups by my lawyer, it was learned that the principal had never written a more detailed report, only the boys were disciplined, and only the boys’ parents were notified. Only after my lawyer threatened the school district with my intention to file a lawsuit, did I get a letter that said my son “witnessed” sexual harassment; he was “counselled” about what he’d seen; he was never punished, because he was not a participant; other than two rude remarks, there was no conversation, no leering, no pushing, no posturing. My son’s “report” was expunged and replaced by a commendation for comporting himself politely while two other children insulted each other. The final sentence: “We try very hard to teach our children to respect each other; it’s unfortunate that we’ve not done so to your liking.”
I let it go at that point. The following year, the principal was transferred to teaching an elementary school class.
But let’s remember one thing….these girls are not career criminals. And they will never do anything like this again…they’re already enduring much suffering. They are three very young lives that can be salvaged. I pray they don’t go to jail or have any kinds of permanent records. They can and should have punishment for what they did, but without that happening. And most importantly, that boy should be spared further humiliation.
Thanks for the update FFLP. The State Attorney’s Office is certainly taking its time on this.
Otterary – interesting. Jim is advocating a felony? However he’s advocating what was done to the boy. So the girls are guilty of at least a felony each? That puts things into perspective.
Robert – the reporter who told the story emailed me and said that the police sent the report to the state attorney’s office. They haven’t decided on anything yet.
What’s bothering me is that this case seems to have been dropped. Despite the fact that I don’t want these girls to go to jail or have a permanent record, or have to register as sex offenders, some sort of other punishment is needed….i.e. house arrest, community service, a day at the Scared Straight Lifer’s Club, etc. If the boy needs therapy to get over his trauma, the parents of the girls should pay for it. I pray that this boy has emotionally recovered.
Jim, you are advocating the commission of a felony. Sorry, sport, that dog won’t hunt. Unless you like prison food a lot.
You know I really don’t go in for harsh punishments of kids, but I think we need a little perspective here. Were the reverse true and these were boys of the same age as the girls, they would now be in detention and there would be a clamor to try them as adults. Few people would be writing in sympathy for the current pain those boys would be suffering.
I don’t want to see these girls go to jail. however, I think the real problem is our cultures skewed sense of both sex and sexuality. Perhaps it time for Americans to reject the rhetoric of the sexually puritanical. The most disgusting thing about this offense was the unwarranted humiliation of an innocent kid. The nudity was secondary to it. There are a vast amount of school bullying incidents that occur daily, but no one gets excited about it unless sex or serious damage is involved.