Jury acquits former Ohio State football players in rape case

A pretty disturbing case got here to a detailed in Columbus, the place two former OSU football players, Amir I. Riep and Jahsen L. Wint, had been acquitted by a jury of the rape and kidnapping of a 19-year-old scholar. The case appeared to hinge on a video of the alleged sufferer giving consent after the actual fact, despite the fact that the video appears to indicate her doing so by tears. She mentioned she solely did so to flee sooner. (While the footage is reportedly “visually dark,” the lady will be heard saying that she’s crying after which agreeing to the query of whether or not the encounter was consensual.)

There are quite a few features to this case, and much more that talk to the nonetheless festering drawback of sexual assault amongst sports activities packages on campus, which our colleagues at Jezebel expertly cowl. One of the extra disturbing features of the case was the 2 defendants mentioned that getting video of consent from their sexual companions was one thing the crew and faculty had instructed them to do, which is horrifying.

“I’m on the football team and this is something that we just are taught to do to protect ourselves,” Amir I. Riep testified he instructed one of many ladies earlier than recording. “It’s nothing against you.”

Riep and one other witness, Lloyd McFarquhar, who was a fellow former football participant at Ohio State, testified that players had been instructed to obtain proof that anybody they’ve intercourse with consented to guard themselves from potential ramifications—authorized, or in any other case.

An Ohio State football crew spokesman, Jerry Emig, despatched an announcement through e mail to The Columbus Dispatch saying:

“In general, when the Department of Athletics speaks with student-athletes about consent, we work closely with subject matter experts on campus and follow the university’s well established Non-Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct Policy.

“You’ll see that page one of the policy defines consent as, ‘permission that is clear, knowing, voluntary, and expressed prior to engaging in and during an act. Consent is active, not passive. Silence, in and of itself, cannot be interpreted as consent. Consent can be given by words or actions, as long as those words or actions create mutually understandable clear permission regarding willingness to engage in (and the conditions of) sexual activity.’”

One would hope that the college could be extra in educating its players and all college students about what consent is and what getting it entails and making everybody on campus really feel secure as an alternative of giving its football players a handy out, however that is faculty football in any case. So as an alternative we get this.

We went by this with the Hockey Canada case, the place the alleged sufferer was filmed saying she consented despite the fact that she was clearly incapable of doing so. And it was apparent that the players knew they needed to have this “evidence.” Where would they’ve gotten that concept?

These establishments, as an alternative of educating younger males or boys what treating ladies with respect and decency is or the correct means of going about sexual encounters are as an alternative simply displaying them “how to get away with it.” How is that this ever going to get higher in the event that they’re not taking the time to root this evil out at its supply and train everybody higher? What’s even sadder is that in Columbus, shock of all shocks, it appears to have labored.