Horrifying. Enraging. Hateful. Disgusting.
Three white former high school football players from Idaho are currently on trial for a rape in which they used a coat hanger to sodomize a mentally disabled black teammate. After several months of investigation, the state attorney general’s office filed sexual assault charges against the three, but one has to wonder what exactly took so long.
According to reports, a teammate opened his arms feigning as if he was going to give the victim a hug after practice. But instead, the victim was restrained while another teammate shoved the foreign object in his rectum. A third teammate kicked the object several times, which caused additional damage.
Egregious. Maddening. Heart-breaking.
Two of the teenagers are being charged as adults and could face life in prison, under Idaho law. The victim’s family filed a $10 million lawsuit against Dietrich (Idaho) High School.The lawsuit claims the attack was not an isolated incident but the culmination of months of racist attacks by much of the student body.The victim was taunted and called racist names by other members of the team which names included Kool-Aid, chicken eater, watermelon and [the N-word], the suit alleges.
(Photo Credit: Washington Post)
The civil complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Idaho also claims that one of the students charged with sexual assault displayed a Confederate flag and demanded the victim recite a racist rap song, Notorious KKK. The lawsuit also names 11 high school employees as defendants and claims school administrators and coaches did nothing to stop the racial and physical abuse to the uniquely vulnerable victim.
The suit also claims that Dietrich football coaches encouraged other players to fight the victim, allowing a much larger student to knock him unconscious as other students shouted catcalls, taunts and racial epithets. 18-year-old John R.K. Howard is depicted as the ringleader of this sad, sordid affair.
Mr. Howard is a large and aggressive male who had been sent to live with his relatives in Idaho due to his inability to keep out of trouble in Texas, the lawsuit says. Mr. Howard is a relative of prominent individuals in the community and, at least in part due to his athletic ability and community connections, the Defendants ignored or were deliberately indifferent to the behavior of Mr. Howard which included aggression, taunting and bullying of The Plaintiff and other students in the District. With deliberate indifference, the Defendants did nothing to curb the vicious acts of Mr. Howard, who brought with him from Texas a culture of racial hatred towards the Plaintiff.
(Photo of chalkboard illustration allegedly drawn by one of the defendants)
The victim, one of the four black students at Dietrich High, was frequently abused by Howard and his fellow teammates, including aggressive humping, jumping on him from the back and simulating anal sex, according to the suit.
The victim, who was adopted by white parents at the age of 4, was powerless to defend himself, as were his guardians. It is only apropos that the criminal justice system be charged with getting him some get-back. In fact, it is the only “right” thing about the entire situation.
