edited for accuracy in the lawyer's statement

When I was in high school, that kind of behavior would unquestionably be considered really gay. Bullying was pretty much limited to shoving smaller kids around, making them run through the locker room as they tossed their clothes all over the place, etc. Anal fingering was decidedly off-limits though.

If you're a scrawny computer geek like me, the best thing to do in high school is form alliances. I'd fix computers for the football players and show them how to find porn sites (this was in the mid-late 90s so the Internet was a pretty new concept to most people), and in return nobody ever messed with me. It was a good arrangement.

lol rat...thats pretty funny

can't take full credit for it. the Chewbacca Defense(r) tactic was pioneered by Johnny Cochran [sic] in a South Park episode. kind of ironic that even with the man dead, his Chewbacca Defense(r) is blossoming better than ever.

This kind of crap is what causes situations like Columbine. Especially if the victim is a quiet kid who doesn't tell anyone. One day, he's had enough.

I'm glad the perp is being tried as an adult. He reminds me of some cops I've known.
(Note: Not ALL cops. However, there are always a few on power trips.)

truly horrific! Assault, absolutely . . . what ethics does this young perpetrator have to think that it's okay to sexually assualt another peer and then call it 'horseplay' . . .

some sincere couseling is in order for both parties, but esp. for the young man acting on such bullying impulses, might indicate a more serious issue . . . aka lack of ability to have empathy, bullying victims etc. couseling and pronto.

Sweetpea

Plattsmouth teen acquitted of sex assault
LINK
This smells like last weeks tuna casserole. Well, the message has been sent. It's ok to stick your fingers into orafices, so long as it's through the undies, and you call it horseplay.
I'm thinking 5 minutes alone in a locked room would change her opinion.
Knowing what I know of Plattsmouth...this smacks of coercion to me. Awfully damn convenient.

Sexual assault. No doubt in my mind.
Saying that no sex organs were involved is a very gray area. A regular assault charge is not enough here.

I doubt Schippert intended it to be sexual assault. I am sure it was just a normal hazing or w/e to him. But that is the problem. I am sure Schippert still thinks that he did nothing wrong. The boy needs to go to prison.

Parents... Learn to raise up your children with a little regard to their fellow man.

**edit after viewing the last comment**
I love our legal system....

OK... I have been the victem of hazing by seniors when I was a freshman. I had the shit kicked out of me a couple of times. But this goes way over the top as far as I'm concerned... This guy should be in some kind of counceling far away from others that he could potentially hurt!

can you squeal like a pig??? fuck. Stories like this really make me believe that the good ole boy network, and the pathetic small town coercion stories that you see on TV really do exist.

what a bunch of fucking hillbillies. And what's with Defense attorney Angela Slattery??? just goes to prove that lawyers sell their souls to the highest (lowest?) bidder.

The outcome of this has made me very sad :( I don't know what else to say, other than the fact that these individuals are sick that they would deem something like that 'horseplay' . . .

sweetpea

i can't believe that verdict...i try to have faith in the jury system, but it sounds like this one choked. every failed prosecution of a sex crime makes it harder for the next survivor to come forward.

blargh...

Gah....eww

I'm very disappointed in this, but given the description of what the witnesses said, I'm not very surprised. With only the victim testifying that he was penetrated, and a bunch of witnesses recanting their statements, it's very, very difficult to prove sexual assault.

It's a shame that they didn't include simple assault as a lesser included offense, as Shippert's testimony was essentially a confession to assault.

Anyone who thinks simulating a sexual act on an unwilling victim is funny is in serious need of psychological help.

*prepares to be crucified*

I'm going to have to agree with the jury on this one here, please don't write me off as an idiot just yet. Having just finished my round of high school football, playing a year in college and then moving to rugby I can tell you with certainty this is a common occurrence. Very similar things have happened to me, hell everything that boy said happened to him has happened to me and just about all my other teammates. I don't think the issue is so much about domination, control or bullying as it is about just trying to make your buddies say "Dude, what the fuck?".

Basically its about pushing boundaries, seeing what you can get away with in front of your friends. The easiest way to push that boundary is to simulate homosexual activity because, as accepting as we pretend to be, in the guy's locker room this is very much off limits. If anyone were to actually admit to being homosexual in any given high school football team's locker room I would feel very sorry for that person. That being said, this is a sort of a norm for pushing the envelope(I'm NOT saying it's ok for this to be the norm just that it is.) in any way, especially among sports so blantanly 'macho' oriented.

Being that this was a freshman he may have been unaware of this type of behavior and the offender being a senior he may have thought this acceptable behavior, as did the other players who witnessed the event. So, no I don't think he should be marched down the Pen to be Bubba's bitch, but he needs to be told that this is not okay, even if it may seem that way to most people, then proceed from there. I'm sorry for the kid who feels victimized but sometimes you just have to grow a tough skin and move on.

Now you can call me an idiot.

so...homophobia, and homophobic violence is okay because it's team building?

yeah, i'm not going to call you an idiot. but i will say you have some fucked up priorities.

Woah, I never meant to say it was ok or that I even remotely agreed with the way things are or that it serves and worthwhile function, only that it is simply the way things are. I'm saying that at 17 your world revolves around cultural norms. In this case what he is doing is simply working within a subcultural norm, and while we sit here and say its wrong because it is, he may not have really thought about that possibility, so you shouldn't be grabbing your pitchforks and torches quite yet.

Dude!!!

We gave a lot of wedgies, and there were other initiation rites when I playing soccer...but the old finger to the first knuckle in the ass trick? Hell NO I don't know that I'd necessary go jail time for this kid, and in fact I can't really say what I'd recommend without actually having a lot more information about it. But shit...jabbing your finger in a teammates red eye would have been a serious problem when I was playing. Icky icky foo.

I guess he get's to go to the prom now.

If you don't agree with the way things are....why wouldn't you want to set a standard that changed what was happening?

If the cultural norms are wrong...then call them wrong and confront them. That this assailent was part of a culture that tolerates homophobic violence, then that means i want to confront the assailent, the assailants actions, and the assailant's culture.

There's no excuse under the law for "it's what we do."

Oh, oh, i have another story similar to this one...You guys'll love it...
Wrestling team, at state, in a hotel. Teacher walks into the guys room, and find a freshmen down on the bed, with a senior over his face, pants down, with his balls on the kid's forehead...oh yes, teabaging. Been going on for YEARS, and the teachers had no idea (or so they claim).
Nice to know sexual assault is alive and well, and being practiced on young boys before it's used on the young women...

and to think i'd only seen teabagging at parties...but seriously between friends, one passed out, usually involving a polaroid. many laughs had the next day. i think a lot of this stuff can be contextual - in the case of the inciting incident for this thread, i think it's safe to say the 15 yr. old kid wasn't down with the sphincter palpitation.

/seriously, who sticks their fingers in a stranger's ass? who wants their fingers smelling like some kid's asshole all day? icky icky foo. then again, i've heard about some weird shit involving less-than-stellar examples of dna and athletic/alpha displays. i'd hate to see all initiation rites dropped because of this kind of crap, but this kind of thing is just unacceptable.

/agree

I didn't say don't change it, but the major tone of the thread up to this point was that this was a clear cut case a bullying and sexual assault with some kid being victimized intensely and that the offender should server the maximum penalty under the harshest law. I'm saying that this isn't the best way to solve it because it is very possible that that isn't the way it happened. Simple horseplay that can get carried away at times, by all means change it. No it isn't right. No it shouldn't stay the same.

Really it's this statement right here. I can totally imagine this happening in my locker room, back at my high school and it would end up being virtually the same case. With everyone being totally caught off guard and saying "Sorry, we really didn't think this would bother you." It says in the article that the older boy was a recipient of the same kind of treatment and I'd bet that this type of thing happened more than once between these two. I was just trying to make the point that I don't think this is really sexual assault but a simple case of horseplay going a bit too far.

This is the point I was trying to make, there is not simply a 'one rule solves all these problems' but that stuff like this really needs to be taken on a case by case basis. I think that it is easy to get the wrong impression and jump to extreme conclusions in a case like this.

Oh brother - time to move.
Really how could they not see this as at least sexual harrassment. Or at the very least harrassment? Tutoring by the school staff. This kid isn't missing out on anything or learning that his behavior was inappropriate in any way. I won't be surprised to hear of something down the road where he got a girl out on a date and wanted more contact than she did. I really hope someone finds the balls to stand up to him again. It's a pity not one of those witnesses had the guts to stand up. I hope they regret it enough not to back down again to a bully. Grrrr bullies.

It was wrong, what he did, I don't care what you want to call it. Go ahead and leave out the sexual part but it was unwanted physical contact that was forced on another kid after much protest and avoidance. That's enough for me. Sick.

if thats not sexual assault what is?

a cleear victory for the Chewbacca defense(r) once again. anyone else see it coming?