Chattanooga High School Sodomy Rape Case Exploding!

A bomb is ticking in Chattanooga because a suburban high school basketball team in Ooltewah, playing at a tournament in Gatlinburg, experienced the sodomy rape of a 15-year-old freshman team member on Dec. 22. Three teen thugs used a pool stick to rape a younger team member–not a stranger but a team member! The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that the pool stick broke off in his bladder after rupturing his colon. The boy’s grandmother said he was held down by two boys while a third raped him with the pool stick. Gatlinburg police reports did not mention a pool stick according to CNN. The boy had reparative surgery at a Knoxville hospital.

The team played four games after the attack while the victim was agonizing in the hospital! Why didn’t the team return to Chattanooga immediately after the crime? After much discussion, debate, and dawdling, the remainder of the basketball season was cancelled. Many school employees are not sleeping well and some are “lawyering up.”

Preceding the rape, at least three other boys were kicked, punched, and thrown to the ground and hit with pool sticks but returned home with no injuries according to two mothers who spoke to the Times Free Press. They said the beatings were done “on a regular basis in the locker room.” Media reports have quoted family members of freshmen as saying there has been “an ongoing pattern of assaults allegedly committed under the guise of hazing.” WRCB-TV suggested that such beatings were a “ritual.” Others charged that beatings and hazing were common in other sports at the school.

There is no way the coaching staff could not know about such activities. Why were they not fired months ago or at least after this incident?

The school superintendent called this a “tragedy” but if reports are true then it was a crime. Three teens have been charged with aggravated rape and aggravated assault. One of the three thugs videoed the whole incident! In addition to the horrific rape, the asinine arrogance of the three criminals to record the attack on a cell phone is astounding! Could it be that such an atmosphere has been cultivated through the years by numerous staff, teachers, and students?

Hamilton County School Superintendent Rick Smith promised he was “going to work very hard and very diligently within our staff, our school board and the community at large to develop the kind of safeguards that will hopefully prevent this from ever happening again.” Hey Smitty, how about suggesting the prosecution of the criminals–as adults? What about firing incompetent adults?

Ooltewah athletic director Jesse Nayadley told the Times Free Press that the three players have been dismissed from the team and Superintendent Smith told the paper that they are treating this as a “very serious long-term suspension matter.” You’ve got to be kidding. You suspend students for shooting spitballs at the teacher’s back. (That sure dates me.) Or, for fighting in the cafeteria. Or, for pouring sugar in the principal’s gas tank. For rape, you expel and insist on jail time.

A Chattanooga attorney representing Ooltewah High School basketball coach said the actions of three team members should not diminish the coach’s reputation or his contributions to the school. That was a paid attorney talking and as long as money continues to be dropped in, he will continue to talk. If the coach is not responsible, then who is?

I was administrator of a large Christian school in Indianapolis for eight years with a big athletic program (as Christian schools go) and I expected the coach to be in total control. If things went astray he was responsible. But ultimately, I was responsible.

However, Smith says no adult was culpable, but how does he know? Someone was sure liable. When students are at school or a school function, school officials are responsible in place of the parents. How many students was each chaperone responsible for? Who was responsible for that cabin where the crime occurred? What was he doing at the time?

Heads should roll starting with the school superintendent, athletic director, coach, principal, and any responsible chaperone, and any others in administration who countenanced a hazing atmosphere. If that victim had been my son, I would demand that heads really roll! Moreover, all students who knew of the assault and did nothing should also be expelled and considered for criminal prosecution! That will get everyone’s attention and really teach accountability.

The administration permitted a culture to grow and flourish in which this could happen. They must be held accountable. That means fire all of those who were culpable.

It’s past time to rock the boat. It’s time to turn it over!

Boys’ new book, The God Haters was published by Barbwire Books; to get your copy of The God Haters click here. (An eBook edition is also available.)

EVOLUTION

Fact, Fraud or Faith?

by Don Boys, Ph.D.

Only an uninformed fanatic says that evolution or creation can be proved scientifically. Christians believe in creationism because we believe in the veracity of the Bible but we also have scientific evidence to support our position. In every debate I’ve had with evolutionary scientists, the arrogant, asinine accusation is made, “Well, evolution is scientific while creationism is religion.” Evolution is about as scientific as a voodoo rooster plucking ceremony in Haiti. Almost.

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