9:14 PM
Elise
Florida's politicians were hard at work today. They've got a lot on their plates - taking the right to due process away from the state's teachers and basing their year's pay on one single test score, forcing women to have ultrasounds before an abortion, banning local governments from restricting or regulating the use of phosphate fertilizers (which are polluting our drinking water and causing dead zones in the Gulf), attempting to ban abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or a woman's life, and of course there's the all important House bill - HB 61 - Code of Student Conduct. This bill is also known as the "sagging pants" bill.
"This pro-family, pro-education, pro-jobs bill provides each school district ... adopt a student dress code of conduct, a policy that explains to each student their responsibility," she said. "This would make for a better school district and more productive students."This bill isn't shocking or anything - it's just a bunch of politicians telling kids to pull up their pants (the focus here is on young black males, just in case you didn't know), and that they shouldn't wear clothes that are "vulgar." Of course, the passage of this legislation will immediately result in increased test scores and grades for each student and apparently create jobs! What is shocking (besides the potential harassment of young black men, which probably bothers few of the white legislators in Tallahassee), is the response of one Republican legislator, Republican Kathleen Passidomo.
"There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gangraped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed like a 21-year-old prostitute," she said. "And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students."No one made a comment on this appalling statement - to the shame of every member of the Committee.
A reader at Think Progress notes Passidomo's response when asked about this statement:
"Thank you for your concern, I was not referring to my own opinion to the cause of the rape, but to the cause implied by a March 8th article of the New York Times."And yet, a simple reading of her statement makes it abundantly clear that Passidomo does indeed believe that this 11-year-old girl was raped because she wasn't in "proper attire" - and that we should pass laws to regulate what kids wear so that we can protect them from themselves and their parent's awful fashion sense which somehow results in violence.
The 11-year-old in question was gang raped by at least 17 men and teenage boys - maybe as many as 28. Her family has had to relocate due to threats and she has been placed in a temporary foster home for protection, but I'm sure a school uniform would have prevented this horrific event where more than a dozen "men" decided to rape a little girl. Of course, the defense for three of the rapists wants us to know that this really isn't just a "little girl."
Over the next two days, the recordings went viral around school. One student who recognized the girl and several of the young men, including star athletes, in the videos, alerted school authorities and triggered the investigation.
So far, 17 suspects have been charged, ranging in age from a middle-schooler to a 27-year-old. Seven are high school students, including two members of Cleveland's state-ranked basketball team. Another is the 21-year-old son of a school board member. Several have prior criminal records for drug sales, aggravated robbery and manslaughter.
James D. Evans III, an attorney who represents three of the defendants, insists: "This is not a case of a child who was enslaved or taken advantage of."
The message we're supposed to take away is basically summed up like this - because this 11-year-old girl was determined to be a few years older than she really was, due to makeup and slutty clothes, and because she tried to act older on her Facebook page, it's perfectly okay for 17 to 28 men to gang rape her while taking photos and video.
