What We Can Learn From The Gang Rape in Texas by Native Notes

One of the more troubling news breaks in the past few weeks has been the story of the alleged gang rape of an 11 yr old girl from Cleveland, Texas by 18 men. The suspects’ ages range from 14 to 27. What a 27 yr old man would want with an 11 yr old girl is beyond me, or why any of these young men would participate in such a heinous act and the way we treat other human beings really frustrates me. This is a horrific story, and what’s been even more troubling are the reactions from many in the local community, major news outlets and internet forums alike that suggest the young girl may have possibly provoked her own sexual assault. My heart goes out to all the parties involved in this situation because the young girl has to live with the emotional trauma of this ordeal and many of the young men have ruined their lives before they even had a chance to start them.

What I think is missing from this conversation is how to make this a teachable moment for our youth. Let’s not be blind to the fact that 11 year-olds, though not legally able to consent, are having “consensual sex” with their peers and sometimes persons outside of their peer groups. Middle school children have been arrested for sharing their mms picture mail detailing graphic nudity of their 6th grade girlfriend or boyfriend and spreading it through the school which is how this case actually made its way to the local authorities. Apparently some of the young men video taped the alleged assault and the footage found it’s way to the Middle School principal who contacted the police.

In the age of technology it’s easier to watch a porno than educational programming. Given all of the unhealthy sexual variations that can be found in porn today, it’s not surprising that young men and women think a “train” (group sex where several males have sex with one girl) is suitable sexual behavior.

Debates on this incident have sparked up everywhere, finding fault with the victim for apparently dressing “too slutty”, or blaming the parents of the boys for not instilling in them the moral decency that this type of sexual behavior is wrong, but no one is trying to reach the youth and have a serious dialogue about sex and their misconceptions about sexual acts. These are not new scenarios, when I was in school, there were girls who slept with the entire football team, and or different crews of fellas and it was all good for the parties involved until someone yelled rape. These types of issues have not gone away, in fact they are more prevalent now than ever. Instead of finding fault we should start educating both young men and women about the law and how it relates to these types of activities and what the consequences of their actions could be.

No longer can we ignore that children under the age of consent are having sex. We have to get serious about educating them on the dangers of their choices. Sex education cannot continue to be a science project where our youth carry around an egg for a week and pretend that they have a child. It can no longer be a video of a woman having a baby that is supposed to gross everyone out so much that no one wants to have sex because guess what, those videos and those classes didn’t stop you and they’re not going to stop the kids today who are exposed to more sex than any generation that has come before them. While the story of this young girl is grossly unfortunate, we need to take this time to open up a dialogue with our youth so this type of behavior stops here before someone else gets hurt.

What are your thoughts on this situation? Should we as a community look to engage our youth about the type of risky behaviors they are participating in? Or was this just a case of some bad guys form the wrong side of the tracks who participated in a heinous act and we shouldn’t give the situation too much attention for fear that talking about it might peak some of our youth’s interest in this type of sexual behavior?

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*Editors Note – Sezin, also wrote a very powerful piece about this case, “Suffer The (Girl) Children” that I would love for you to read.

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