The Stanford Rape Case and the Case for Education

I am not exactly going out on a limb when I say that the Stanford Rape Case has garnered international attention. This is due mainly in part to Buzzfeed’s release of a 7,200+ word impact statement written, and read aloud in the courtroom by the victim to her attacker, Brock Turner. The screed, at once searing, terrifying, painful and moving, lit up the Internet, inciting immediate outrage among both women and men, young and old. Not only because the details of the case and ensuing trial were so horrifying, but because despite Turner being convicted by a jury of three counts of criminal sexual assault he was sentenced to a mere six months in prison by a very misguided judge. Much has already been said about the hubris of Judge Aaron Persky, Turner and his father, Dan, who also read a statement in court so ignorant and tone deaf it nearly broke the Internet all over again.

Let’s all accept that the Internet is the worst. Days before this case became a global sensation, the Internet was castigating the mother of a young boy who fell in to a gorilla pit at a Cincinnati zoo, the zoo administrators who shot and killed the gorilla and a Japanese couple who left their young son on the side of the road after he had thrown rocks at cars. The Internet has a lot of opinions, almost none of them expert or nuanced, but all delivered with confident outrage. It’s no wonder Donald Trump has been nominated for President by a major political party. Donald Trump is the Internet personified.

But in this case, the Internet’s outrage is warranted. A 23 year-old woman (whose identity has not been revealed) was assaulted while unconscious behind a dumpster by a 20 year-old male who was convicted of his crimes by a jury. The system worked and was then undermined by white and male privilege. It ultimately failed the victim (and all victims of similar crimes). Sadly, in and of itself, this is not news. It happens every day. The glaring spotlight is being shone on this case not because of its shameful resolution, but because the victim’s statement was so well written and articulate it became impossible to ignore. Absent her powerful words, we may not be talking about it.

This woman showed incredible courage. Facing an attacker in a courtroom is an intimidating situation. Having to relive a night she has no memory of in such a clinical setting, while having her reputation dragged through the mud in front of her family must have been traumatizing. She showed that she was not intimidated by Brock Turner, his defense team or Judge Aaron Persky. Kudos to her for that. But her courage is only half the story. The combination of courage coupled with the lasting effects of an excellent education may just change the way we view rape cases moving forward.

In one light, education is in the hot seat here because the crime took place on a college campus. These places of higher learning seem to have a serious intelligence gap when it comes to rape. This is an institutional problem. University administrators need to be educated on how to better protect students at their most vulnerable on the one hand and how to punish students at their most privileged on the other. They need to be taught that the rights of their students and staff supersedes the need to control and/or generate good publicity for the institution. This means handing investigative authority over to local (or federal) police forces and not to private campus police. Rape is a major crime. It necessitates a qualified agency, one bound by state and federal laws, to uncover the evidence, find the perpetrator and insure the victim is protected, supported and able to press charges.

However, this woman’s ability to use language so exquisitely, to articulate difficult truths, to effect not only the people in the courtroom, but the millions of people across the world who have read her words is a testament to the years she must have spent in the education system. Dynamic educators teaching curious students in a university setting isn’t merely fodder for Dead Poets Society style movie making. It is an age old ideal that we should seek to preserve and expand.

This is not to say that only educated people can be articulate or that only college graduates can be good writers. While we don’t know where she was educated, the woman mentions in her statement that her “tolerance (for alcohol) had significantly lowered since college,” so it’s safe to assume she has at minimum a bachelors degree. The unseen benefits of a quality education transcend the ability to solve for x. Sometimes, our lives may depend on the lessons we learned in school. And while its true that many of the “winners” in our society are bursting with masters degrees, PhDs and honorary doctorates, we often regard them as stuffy and out-of-touch. Instead we reward those who “shoot from the hip” and “go with their gut”. We surround ourselves with gadgets invented by geniuses and then use them primarily to espouse and consume nonsense. But this woman shows that learning how to string an eloquent sentence together is a most valuable lesson. One we should strive to teach all of our citizens.

Boys need to be taught from a young age that it is never acceptable to take advantage of, abuse or assault women, or to engage sexually with them without their consent. They need to know that the right to pursue a career in athletics does not trump the basic rights of anybody else. Most importantly, as a nation, we need to double down on education. This instance is proof that regardless of the pain and devastation this woman was subjected to, her education wrought an overwhelming positive.

Though Brock Turner benefited from his white and male privilege, a truly irresponsible judge and a loathsome father, justice may yet be served. The publicity generated by the media coverage has caused such a furor that nearly a million people have signed a petition asking that Judge Persky be removed from the case [UPDATE: Judge Persky has just been removed from a new case based on his verdict in the Stanford case]. While Turner and his father are spouting off about their desire to “educate” other young men about the “dangers of alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity”, the education I’m talking about should be accessible to all citizens.

Quality public education should not be tied to property taxes or segregated along racial lines (please read that article). A better educated citizenry is a lofty but attainable goal. We need to teach our young how to write and articulate their thoughts. They need to learn math, science, literature, history, civics and the arts. They need to be taught about sexual health and ethics without intrusion from political or religious groups. It won’t eliminate the existence of predatory behavior, but it may help others who’ve been let down by the system to rise above those failures by harnessing the power of a well written sentence.

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