{"id":15598,"date":"2012-12-10T07:17:48","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T12:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=15598"},"modified":"2012-12-10T07:17:48","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T12:17:48","slug":"american-misogyny-peaks-as-12-year-old-sex-abuse-victim-is-blamed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/12\/american-misogyny-peaks-as-12-year-old-sex-abuse-victim-is-blamed\/","title":{"rendered":"American Misogyny Peaks As 12 Year Old Sex Abuse Victim Is Blamed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"California-School-District-Blames-Child-Sex-Abuse-Victim-SM\"<\/a> \"California-School-District-Blames-Child-Sex-Abuse-Victim\"<\/a>We have heard a lot this year about the so-called \u201cWar On Women\u201d.\u00a0 Conservatives on the one hand want to say there is no war, liberals\u00a0strongly state\u00a0the opposite.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I find it incredible that anyone c0uld deny such a war exists with all the recent legislation regarding women\u2019s reproductive healthcare services, comments by bloviating ignoramuses such as Rush Limbaugh, Richard Mourdock and Todd Akins.\u00a0 Hell there is even a website now showing how many days it has been since a Republican mentioned \u201crape\u201d while campaigning.<\/span><\/p>\n

The official Republican National Committee Platform presents the harshest take on women\u2019s issues in decades and their candidate for president, Mitt Romney, refuses to say where he stands on women\u2019s pay \u2013 even after repeated questions regarding the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the midst of this misogynistic frenzy, one recent news items stands out from all the rest when last week in California, the Moraga School District, alleged that a 12 year old girl, who suffered prolonged sexual abuse spanning years at the hands of two middle school teachers was \u201ccareless,\u201d \u201cnegligent\u201d and \u201cwas herself\u00a0 responsible for the acts and damages of which she claims\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s think about this one for a minute.\u00a0 A school district,\u00a0 a branch of civic government is saying that a young girl \u2013 12 to 13 years old \u2013 is herself responsible for prolonged acts of sexual abuse by 2 of its teachers?<\/span><\/p>\n

And their response?\u00a0 What about their response?<\/span><\/p>\n

They did for whatever idiotic reason feel compelled to issue a response, as if anything they could ever write or say could justify their intent.<\/span><\/p>\n

In<\/span>\u00a0their statement<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0they wrote:\u00a0 \u201cWe certainly empathize with Ms. Cunnane and did not intend to cause her further distress in filing our formal Answer to her Complaint. However, this is a significant case that could have serious consequences for our school district. She is demanding several million dollars in damages. As a result, at this point in the proceedings we have an obligation not to waive any potential legal lines of defense. \u2026 Ms. Cunnane and the media have seized on only one of the nine potential areas and over-exaggerated its importance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now how in the hell does one \u201cempathize\u201d with what essentially amounts to the unprovoked rape of a child?\u00a0 [And for those of you fond of splitting hairs – I write unprovoked because there is no way anyone can reasonably state that a 12 year old child can provoke a sexual act.]<\/span><\/p>\n

And what about the talk of serious consequences to the school district and millions of dollars in potential damages?\u00a0 What about the serious consequences to a 12 year old child, who as it turns out foolishly thought she was safe at school in the care of teachers?\u00a0 What about the damages to her spirit and body?<\/span><\/p>\n

And with all due respect, what the\u00a0hell is this talk about their claim the victim \u201cseized on only one of the nine potential areas and over-exaggerated its importance\u201d?\u00a0 WTF?!?<\/span><\/p>\n

Are these people serious?<\/span><\/p>\n

And what about the victim, Ms. Cunnane?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to see that I\u2019m \u2018seizing on\u2019 something,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she told KTUV<\/span><\/a><\/span>, \u201cbecause this is my life.\u201d She told the KTUV reporter that she felt the school district response tells rape victims everywhere that they are the ones to blame.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like I got punched in the stomach, and I stood up and thought about how young I was when I was 12 to 13 years old at the school,\u201d said Cunnane.\u00a0 \u201cFor them to use words like \u2018negligent\u2019 and \u2018responsible\u2019 just broke my heart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As reported by the Oakland Tribune, the school district\u2019s attorney stated that the language used in their response was \u201cappropriate\u201d and \u201cnecessary\u201d for a civil case with significant ramifications and went on to note that\u00a0 \u201cevery potential defense\u201d must be raised in such legal filings, \u201csince failure to do so results in a waiver of the defense.\u201d”It is imperative that all possible defenses be raised at this point in time. As more facts become known, the district will then reassess its defenses\u201d.Ms. Cunnane\u2019s attorney and noted youth law expert, Paul Llewellyn noted: \u201cThat (the) defendants would go so far as to blame a child victim of sexual abuse rather than admit or even examine their own wrongdoing is offensive and appalling\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, as reported by the<\/span>\u00a0Oakland Tribune<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u201cCunnane was sexually abused by two Moraga middle school teachers in the 1990s, one of them over a four-year period. She sued the district, retired Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School principal Bill Walters, retired assistant principal Paul Simonin and retired superintendent John Cooley in Contra Costa Superior Court, saying they repeatedly ignored allegations of abuse, allowing her and other students to be victimized. The lawsuit alleges negligence, fraudulent concealment, conspiracy to commit fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and cites an investigation by this newspaper as revealing for the first time the district\u2019s knowledge of the alleged abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Joaquin Moraga P.E. teacher Julie Correa pleaded guilty to rape and sexual battery against Cunnane over a four-year period beginning in 1996, when Cunnane was an eighth-grader. Cunnane said Correa groomed her after she confided in her that Joaquin Moraga science teacher Daniel Witters had molested her. Witters committed suicide shortly after a group of girls came forward with allegations in 1996, and police stopped investigating him criminally after that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have heard a lot this year about the so-called \u201cWar On Women\u201d.\u00a0 Conservatives on the one hand want to say there is no war,..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,16,43,84,97,106],"tags":[345],"class_list":["post-15598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discrimination","category-editorials","category-media-culture","category-statements","category-us-news","category-women","tag-reactionary-watch"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/california-school-district-blames-child-sex-abuse-victim-sm.jpg?fit=195%2C163&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}