Didn’t Get the Lickins That the Other Ones Had
The complete breakdown of civilization on the bus to Wilson whereby a young JV player was sexually assaulted by his erstwhile “teammates” is neither an isolated incident, nor should it have come in any way as any surprise to anyone in charge:
A player on the Wilson high school baseball team was sexually harassed last year by older teammates during a bus ride for an away game.
The boy and his parent complained to a team coach, and for some time after that, one coach rode the bus in front and the other at the back to keep an eye on the players who had been involved in unruly behavior.
The hazing complaint apparently went no further.
But this year, when both coaches were riding at the front of the bus, some of the older players sexually abused two junior varsity players…
…The sources did not want to be identified because they are not authorized to release information, but they came forward because of concern that a pattern has repeated itself in Wilson.
“The kid who complained [last year] was then singled out for the rest of last year by fellow teammates as a ‘narc’ and was punched by other teammates for telling his parent,” one of the sources said.
Equally disturbing is this revelation arising out of the public forum on the issue held last week at Wilson High School:
Many of the 650 people who showed up Thursday for a district-wide meeting voiced support for Baia and Atlas, with only a handful expressing concern for the junior varsity players who were attacked.
The Niagara Falls Reporter corroborates that:
Last week, a town meeting was held in Wilson to discuss the situation, and the place was packed to the rafters. Those expressing any concern or sympathy for the victims in the case were rare. Supporters of Baia and Atlas dominated the session, blaming the alleged perpetrators’ parents, who were not on the bus, the news media, which was not on the bus, and anyone else they could think of.
So, first civilization completely shits the bed on the bus, and next it is further diminished by “concerned citizens” at a public forum. The only - repeat the only individuals worthy of anyone’s sympathy here are the victims themselves. Not the perpetrators. Not their families. Not the coaches. Not anybody else.
And the people of the Town of Wilson really need to get over themselves and their little pity party. The media, and the community-at-large, are appalled that something like this goes on. Even more so now that it emerges as a pattern of which the coaches and the district either knew or should have known about.
That knowledge, and the willful failure of the adults to behave as such renders this a much bigger story, and a much larger scandal than the fact of the sexual assault itself. The perpetrators abused young students, and the adults did nothing, and now they can’t say they didn’t know it might happen. Teachers get fired for wearing bikinis on the Howard Stern show, but Wilson can’t be bothered to fire these coaches?
Oh, and one of the 16 year old perpetrators of the sexual assault on the bus? Yeah, he just got popped last night - at 1am (on a school night?!) for possession of a controlled substance.
Wow. Just 16 years old and already has a pending felony charge in Wilson and a pending misdemeanor charge in Porter.
John Says:May 8th, 2008 at 10:39 am
You mean jock rapists and their enablers aren’t being held responsible for their actions by the community at large!?!? In America!?!?
[/faux shock]
hank Says:May 8th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Looks like as the onion gets peeled back, more of the same lies within.
Someone needs to be held accountable for this…shameful
Mike Says:May 8th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Oh boy hank can’t you please blame it on failure to play dodge ball?
Denizen Says:May 8th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Oh noes, nothing can ever go wrong in a bucolic little lilly white town
Baseball » Didn’t Get the Lickins That the Other Ones Had Says:May 8th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
[…] RumorsDaily wrote an interesting post today on Didnâ??t Get the Lickins That the Other Ones HadHere’s a quick excerptA player on the Wilson high school baseball team was sexually harassed last year by older teammates during a bus ride for an away game. […]
Terry Says:May 8th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Sherlock Holmes always comes to mind when dealing with crime, and he had his thoughts on rural communities: “Do you know, Watson,” said he, “that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.”
“Good heavens!” I cried. “Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?”
“They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”
“You horrify me!”
“But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.”
Mike Says:May 8th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
We now have a new expression “bend over and take it like a Wilson baseball player”, life is great here in western new york.
Ben Franklin Says:May 8th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
BP,
How about:
The bus came by and I got on, that’s where it all began?
hank Says:May 8th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Mike–Your inane comment aside, Something is rotten in Wilson. Not Wilson, North Carolina–where if this happened, the perpetrators would be dealt with severity,celerity (look that one up Mike) and Swiftness.
Frankly, after reading Pundit’s post and the links he included, I was appalled. I’m not unfamiliar with Wilson, and if someone told me they wanted to move there, I would have told them nothing but good about it, as up to this week I’d never heard anyone say anything bad about the place.
All the public has done apparently is to enable and condone aggravated sodomy. The Why of this escapes me totally.
steve Says:May 8th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Only tangentially related, but why do I suspect that the NF Reporter’s take was based on reporting done from the comfort of Hudson’s living room? The Reporter is not widely known in Niagara County for actually going to the meetings they sometimes write about. More like offering an opinion after having watched or read about it in some other media.
Mike Says:May 8th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Hank do you now condone lynching? And steve you are correct, the reporter are kind of like us.
Bill Altreuter Says:May 8th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Here’s the part that surprises me whenever I hear about a hazing incident: essentially any hazing is illegal in New York State. NY Penal Law § 120.17 provides, “A person is guilty of hazing in the second degree when, in the course of another person’s initiation or affiliation with any organization, he intentionally or recklessly engages in conduct which creates a substantial risk of physical injury to such other person or a third person.” It’s “only” a violation (and “only” a misdemeanor if it causes injury), but it opens the school up to civil liability. You would think that before the start of every school year every principal would lay it out for the teachers: we have a zero tolerance policy as regards hazing– of any sort.
In fact, mild hazing takes place in just about every school. Every time it is brought to my attention I bring the provisions of Penal § 120.17 to the attention of the principal, and I have yet to be told, “You’re right. It will never happen again.” So I say, bring on the lawyers. Wilson had prior notice. The only thing that is going to keep the district out of bankruptcy is the bar on punitive damages against municipalities. The teachers and coaches do not enjoy that same immunity, and I hope they end up living in boxes for allowing the worst “Lord of the Flies” impulses of their students free reign.
hank Says:May 8th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Mike I guess you never took Criminal Justice 101
Punishment has 3 facets.
Celerity–the punishment must fit the crime
Severity–an amount equal to the offense
Swiftness—a problem with many criminal cases, by the time punishment is meted out, the offender has already committed more crimes.
hank Says:May 8th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Oh, and I don’t condone lynching, but a couple of nights in Attica might teach the offenders something. Virginia started some “Shock Imprisonment” back in the 90’s, before being granted probation (supervision instead of prison, which is different from Parole), and when some of these young offenders found out prison isn’t county jail, they decided that perhaps they didn’t want to end up there.
Matt Says:May 9th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I can’t believe the things that kids are doing these days. Anyways, There is more to the case, I guess one of the kids got caught with hydrocodone and has been arrested. Gives you an Idea of what kind of people we are dealing with. The Buffalo Blog.
Buffalo Pundit » Blog Archive » Wilson Bus Sexual Assaults Says:August 9th, 2008 at 7:26 am
[…] then the school district, perpetrators, and coaches are in a whole lot of trouble for permitting civilization to completely break down on the […]