Last year, Savannah Dietrich, 17, was sexually assaulted. Two teenage boys attacked her while she was unconscious, bragged about it, and circulated photos of the assault. Lock them up and throw away the key, right? Not so much. The court gave the two offenders a lenient punishment. So Dietrich thought she'd dole out her own kind of justice: She tweeted the names of her juvenile assailants for all the world to see.
The little jerks deserved it.
The problem is, Dietrich's tweet violated a court order to keep the two juveniles names confidential. And so, the victim of a heinous crime was facing contempt of court charges for which SHE could be thrown in jail.
Fortunately the boys' attorneys wised up and the charges were withdrawn. But what the heck were they thinking? Something is severely wrong when we start holding the victim to a higher standard of criminal justice than the animals who attacked her.
Was what she did illegal? Hell yeah. Was she in contempt of court? Legally, she probably was. But would we hold a father in contempt of court for punching the molester who ruined his child’s life? Would we hold a mother who bitch-slapped her daughter’s rapist in contempt of court? How about the dad who called the murderer of his only son a murder when it was still “alleged”? How could we even consider holding a girl in contempt of court for outing her attackers on Twitter when she felt she wasn’t getting justice any place else?
If Dietrich were my daughter, I'd be all for her decision to tweet her attackers’ names. There comes a point when you see your child hurting so much that you allow them to do whatever they need to survive the pain to a point. Not only would I have condoned my daughter’s legally fuzzy tweeting of her assaulters' names, I would have retweeted it to infinity, Facebooked it, and Stumbled those assholes' names. Pinned their faces on Pinterest and announced to the entire world via every single social media avenue I had that these boys were sexually assaulting monsters that should be kept away from everyone’s daughters.
How is it that anyone could ever consider punishing the victim while giving her attackers a slap on the wrist?
Would you support your child's decision to violate a court order to tweet out the names of her attackers if it meant she could possibly end up in jail herself?
Image via DonkeyHotey/Flickr
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Comments 18
Absolutely! The court order was wrong in the first place. With the evidence that the boys posted it's not like they needed to make a plea deal in order to prove culpability.
She still felt that she didn't get any justice. The attackers were given light sentences plus their records were sealed. It's like it never happened. I understand her anger.
Agreed, I would consider renting a damn billboard for the whole world to see.
Damn right I'd support it! they already posted photos, so people already know who they were... I'dd do the same damn thing.
The pain cannot be understood unless we have undergone the same. But our anger and frustration at these injustices are shared by ALL. I wonder what the parents of the attackers feel? Is there any possibility to lookafter/ protect the interests of the victims? Cant they be represented by social concious lawyers .. who care about Victims Rights?
Some records shouldn't be sealed I don't care how old you are. They posted the photos themselves! She is the one who has to live with that little bit of shame for the rest of her life. If she were my daughter I would want her face tattooed on them with the crime spelled out so every time they undressed in front of a woman they had to explain.
I agree with what she did. Why is it ok that everyone knows what happened to her but its not ok for everyone to know who did it to her. I feel she got the shaft on this one. I think she should stand stong with what she believes.
Some things are worth going to jail for. That is one of them. Putting that infromation out there might save another girl from getting raped. Good for her.