More Proof of American Rape Culture

  A Billings, Montanaformer teacher was sentenced after being convicted of raping a 14 year oldgirl.  The judge gave him a miniscule thirty days in prison because he sees the perpetrator as “treatable” and “low risk to reoffend.”  The judge also said that the teen seemed “older than her chronological age” and therefore had control over the situation.  The victim committed suicide during the legal proceedings of the case.

  Stacey Dean Rambold was a teacher at Billings Senior High School when he allegedly seduced one of his students into a sexual relationship.  The then 49 year old teacher resigned after the relationship was discovered by school administrators.  During that time he was charged with three counts of “sexual intercourse without consent”.  In fact, rape is not even listed as acrime in Montana’s criminal code.  While the maximum sentence for the crime is twenty years, it is difficult to perceive a situation where the legal system cannot even define rape in a way that suggests the seriousness it deserves.  What if murder was categorized as “exacerbating the inevitable end of life”?

  After the victim died in 2010, Rambold was accepted for a deferred prosecution program, which meant he would agree to stay out of contact with any minors, disclose any relationships with women, and undergo a treatment program for sexual offenders.  Again, incorporating the idea that violators are victims as much as the people they violate only encourages the opinion that rape should be a forgivable offense.  When Rambold violated the terms of his “treatment”, his case resumed prosecution last December.

  Auliea Hanlon, the victim’s mother, was outraged by the thirty day sentence.  A complaint she filed against Rambold blamed his actions for her daughter’s death.  The judge, G. Todd Baugh, submitted his opinion that the girl was in control of her actions after watching two taped interviews with the police.  Even though the judge admitted it was clear that she was a troubled young girl, and that the situation “should not have happened,” he said she seemed older than her actual age and that he did not have any evidence that the rape was linked to her death.  The Montana Organization of Women are holding a petition on Moveon.org to get

Rape quilt in Washington D.C. by FORCE

the judge to resign.