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
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| Rape quilt in Washington D.C. by FORCE |
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