School rape is a safety and security issue, stupid

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

There are so many hot-button issues tied to the investigation of the rape of a 14-year-old girl in a Maryland high school that it’s easy to lose sight of the horror of the crime itself.

The crime under investigation is rape. The crime scene is Rockville High School in Montgomery County.

There are an estimated 105 cameras on school grounds and five safety-security officers, and it’s likely that more than one of those cameras captured before and after footage of the rape.

What’s also likely is that no one was watching the cameras in real time. In other words, unlike the live-action Chicago rape of a 15-year-old girl on Google Live this week, the Maryland rape case does not appear to have been witnessed by anyone in the 1,300-student Rockville school, let alone by the security officers.

And what’s also truly alarming is this: School authorities met with parents and other concerned families on Tuesday evening but never explicitly tagged the rape as a rape. They instead used sanitized terms, such as “event” and “unfortunate incident.”

That alone explains why school safety and school security must remain a flash point as the investigation moves forward, even as the incident has sparked a national debate on immigration policy and Montgomery County’s would-be role as a “sanctuary” from the enforcement of federal immigration statutes.

“[Authorities] repeatedly said there are 105 cameras in school,” but nobody “monitors the live feed,” a parent who attended the meeting told me. “They used the camera feed afterward to determine what happened instead [of] as a preventive measure.”

During the meeting, Montgomery County Schools Chief Jack Smith said the facts of the “event” do not define the school or the school system.

According to Jacquie Kubin, who lives in Montgomery County and publishes Communities Digital News, Mr. Smith told the assembled parents, “This is a horrible event, but it is an event, not a defining moment as to who we are. We have to push back and say it won’t happen again.”

The attack “does not define how we think of people that don’t speak English or have documentation. We are not going to paint all students of a skin color with a broad brush.”

What the heck does that mean? She was not raped orally, vaginally and anally as authorities said? There was no rape at all?

Hold your response — are you familiar with rape shame?

Rape shame is when rape and sexually assaulted victims come to think, for various reasons, that their behavior led to their rape. Sad. So sad, but true.

For now the Rockville High School case is a rape. The Montgomery County Police report uses the word, and prosecutors back it up with rape charges now facing the two suspects, Jose O. Montano, 17, and Henry E. Sanchez, 18, of Guatemala.

So the issue we can’t lose sight of is school safety and security. What did school authorities know, when did they know it, and what are they doing to prevent such crimes from reoccurring in Rockville High or some other school?

The safety and security issue must not be muddied by other issues, and those other issues are plentiful.

Immigration, illegal immigration, undocumented aliens, unaccompanied youths.

Assimilation, integration, segregation.

Education, ignorance, stupidity.

Racism, bigotry, prejudice.

Fear, anxiety, frustration.

The U.S. Constitution. Sanctuary cities. Law and order.

Politics. Political correctness. Political incorrectness.

Money.

Obfuscation.

Gender neutrality.

Restrooms.

Victimology.

Rape, whether it happens to a male or a female, must be taken seriously.

The people who participate in rape and the people who allowed it to happen must be held accountable.

State, county and local education authorities must look themselves in the mirror and raise the bar. The rape occurred inside — I-N-S-I-D-E — a schoolhouse.

Rape must not be allowed to become our new “normal.” Not in America. Not in America’s schools either.

• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.