‘Thanks for Ruining My Life’

[n2doc]

Dec 10, 2012 12:00 AM EST
A teen tweets against her attackers—and upends the courts.



Savannah Dietrich says she was furious when she blasted out a defiant tweet this summer, naming two boys who had sexually assaulted her. “There you go, lock me up. I’m not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell,” the 16-year-old high-school student wrote.



Her green eyes lined with charcoal, hair swept aside into a loose braid, she recounts the June episode on a crisp fall day in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, sitting at a neighborhood coffee shop. Normally, an underage victim of sexual assault would not be named in these ­pages. But Dietrich wanted to go public.

Her ordeal began when two 16-year-old boys stripped off her bra and underwear after she had passed out at a party. The boys took turns pushing their fingers into her vagina, documenting their actions with cellphone photos. When Dietrich pressed charges, the boys pleaded guilty in a deal offered by the prosecutor, but she faced a new and unexpected problem: the judge ordered her not to talk about what had happened to her—an apparent infringement of her right to free speech, according to legal experts and to Dietrich herself.

The court was trying to “gag a victim,” says her mother, Sharon Dietrich, to “hide a crime.”

The teen, already feeling that the boys were getting off easy under their plea agreement, started tweeting. “Everyone thought I was this little girl they could intimidate,” she says, with a slight Kentucky lilt.

more

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/12/09/thanks-for-ruining-my-life.html

[In_The_Wind]

1. I'm glad Dietrich spoke up for herself.

[sufrommich]

2. The concern for the boys is telling..

"Dietrich’s team went after both judges and the prosecutor, requesting that all three be disqualified from the case. The prosecutor, they charged, was not objective. Turned out, he had attended the same high school as the boys—Trinity—and remained an active supporter, serving on a reunion committee and in an alumni society, according to court filings. The judges and prosecutor declined to comment for this story, as did Trinity."

[Tsiyu]

14. It's time to start "Judge and Prosecutor Shaming"

I can't click on the link, but I would love to see that judge's name spelled out, as well as the prosecutor's name.

It's time to start shaming ignorant, perverted justice.

The boys and their legal help are all lower than pond scum.

And young women in that judge's district are at a distinct risk of being sexually assaulted, owning to the fact that the judge doesn't appear to give a shit about young women.

[DonCoquixote]

23. and this is why

We should be wary of private schools, because they love to make a little power clique that protects the rich caste from the consequences of their actions. Any surprise an Alumni is here to defend them, and from a Catholic School at that? You know, that Church that has protected child molesters, but threatens Nuns for being too lefty.

[RC]

3. Good on Savannah!

The judge was trying to keep things quiet, being "PC", actually.
Savannah did the right thing by speaking out anyway. No "woe is me" whining here.

[redqueen]

13. How was the judge being PC? Protecting rapists is in no way PC. And no "woe is me" whining?

I guess lucky for you, you just didn't have to hear or see it.

“I was so stressed out, I would just burst into tears at the most normal things.” She knew rumors were escalating. “Some people said, ‘Are you sure you didn’t consent?’” At her lowest point, she says, she thought about suicide.

I'm glad she had people to talk to who didn't call her a whiner.

[GaYellowDawg]

20. You're right about the PC part

It's certainly not PC to protect rapists.

However, I think the poster you replied to was actually saying that she did not indulge in "woe is me" whining - e.g., "Savannah did the right thing by speaking out anyway. (There is) No "woe is me" whining here."

[RC]

22. Being PC is a powerful form of censorship.

Oh, yes it is. And the judge issued an injunction to keep the victim quiet. That is why it is PC. Censorship is basically what being PC is all about anyway.
The girl was victimized. - twice. First by the boys and the second time by the judge.
She had to work her way through both the insults to her self-esteem and to her body. She did, and came out the stronger for it.
There will be no repeat of mistakes for this young woman.
Seeing what she went through, she could have stayed curled up in a ball, feeling sorry for herself. She did not. She worked her way through the hurt and found a solution that worked quite well for her.
Give her credit for what she accomplished. It could not have been easy.

How do I have any insight on this? I raised my own two girls, from the ages of 3 and 5 myself. I came home from work, to a note that said my wife was leaving and the kids were at the babysitters. I was Mr. Mom for the next 17 years or so. And did a damn good job too.
My youngest just graduated with an engineering degree (4.0+) and is going to Fort Collins for a post graduate degree, tuition paid by the school she will be attending. You bet I'm proud.

[Xipe Totec]

27. Good call

Kudos.

[TheMadMonk]

32. Protecting "children" at any cost however, is very PC. /nt

[riderinthestorm]

4. K&R for a brave girl who refuses to be slut shamed (and silenced). nt

[progressoid]

5. Good for her.

[2naSalit]

6. Stay brave, young lady!!

Slut-shaming should be a crime.

[meow2u3]

19. Jails would be full of rethug men if slut-shaming is a crime

BTA, I have no problem locking up rethug slut-shamers. On top of that, slut-shaming ought to come also with having to register as a sex offender.

BWAHAHAHAH!!!!

[freshwest]

25. WTG and Muahaha to that!

[Horse with no Name]

7. People generally agree to Gag Orders when they are compensated handsomely for such and are agreeable

to it. It is a travesty that it is done to protect someone other than the victim.

This Judge needs to be sanctioned for this.

[backtoblue]

8. read the comments to this story

edit: comments on link, not DU

[coalition_unwilling]

10. Jeez, some of those comments make DU look like an anarcho-commie conspiracy by

comparison. Really awful what my fellow Americans can sometimes talk themselves into (like 'she deserved it b/c she drank too much' and such-like).

[Solly Mack]

9. K&R

[heaven05]

11. what

a society/culture. Nothing civil here. Pseudo-macho society that is basically mean. I hate this place at times. A lot of humans are just mean.

[bluestateguy]

12. I think her free speech was abridged

It is not like they were innocent before being proven guilty. They were guilty.

I don't think there should be any confidentiality no matter what the crime is, just because it is juvenile court. So my position would be the same here even if we were talking about two kids who stole a six pack of beer from a drug store.

[redqueen]

15. I hope those boys get some help.

It would be disastrous if instead of learning why what they did is wrong, they turned to groups which insist that drunk women who get raped are only victims of their own "bad judgment".


This is the age range where most rapists start raping. Hopefully these boys will learn from this and never rape again.

McWhorter’s research also indicates that rapists start young. Of the men who did not report an assault pre-enlistment, only 2% reported assaults while in the Navy, but 16% of those who admitted that they raped or attempted to rape between age 14 and enlistment also said they did it again while enlisted. 60% of rapists, however, said their first assault was after they turned 18. This implies that there is a window when rapists start raping, in their late teens.

http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/meet-the-predators/

[DevonRex]

24. I can attest to that.

They start young and choose very, very young victims that they can overpower and terrorize one way or another to keep quiet.

[lunatica]

16. I would display that kind of courage today, but at 16?

I know I would have just lived with shame and never told anyone. Of course times have changed and if I was 16 today, maybe it would be different. I like to think us old feminists helped this girl in our fight for equality and justice.

Savannah is admirable!

[dsc]

17. It also took away her right to sue

since she couldn't possibly sue without discussing the crime. She also presumedly would be unable to get treatment either. A simply outrageous order that should be overturned.

[snooper2]

18. Austin and Will's full names and pictures will be on the Intertubes forever

[Hekate]

21. So will hers, despite everything. For her, it will go on and on.

The whole thing is nauseating.

That young woman has guts.

[hedgehog]

26. We have to have some perspective here - the Lacrosse team has had a winning season!

http://www.laxpower.com/update11/binboy/XLVTKY.PHP

[union_maid]

28. She is truly a hero

What she's done makes it riskier for other boys to indulge in that kind of behavior. I hope that, eventually, she can put the trauma behind her and just be proud of herself and of her family. Her mother was no slouch in all this either.

[Odin2005]

29. A brave young woman!

:applause

[Marie Marie]

30. Way to take your power back Ms. Dietrich.

This woman refuses to play the victim and good for her. These guys are criminals.

[InsultComicDog]

31. Meanwhile the stories that report on her still are protecting the perpetrator's names

WILL FREY and AUSTIN ZEHNDER

[trumad]

33. Here's what the rapists look like.

Fucking Pigs. If they did this to my beautiful daughter...they'd have to look over their shoulders the rest of their lives.

[closeupready]

34. K&R for Savannah and her awesomeness!