Links to this story: Detroit Free Press Columnist
BY ROCHELLE RILEY
DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
"The most important thing isn't that a Huron Township mother let her barely teenage daughter
go on TV and say she was raped -- although that traumatic a disclosure is hard for any grown
woman to handle.
The most important thing isn't that a TV station would record a 14-year-old claiming she was raped -- although time was that the names of rape victims weren't allowed on TV or in newspapers. And for good reason.
No, the most important thing is that a 14-year-
old girl killed herself. She is dead. Gone before
her Sweet 16 birthday. Gone before senior prom
and graduation and dreams of college. And the
reason she killed herself came way before she
was
taunted and bullied
to death at her school.
It happened before the TV appearance with her
mother, which reportedly enraged some
knuckleheaded teens who then made her life
miserable.
No, the reason she killed herself is because an
18-year-old neighbor who goes to the same
high school broke the law.
In Michigan, it is illegal to have sex with a 14-
year-old girl. There are no extenuating
circumstances. There are no ways for a minor to
consent. It is illegal -- for a reason. Fourteen-
year-olds cannot make decisions about sex.
They are too damn young.
So why did Joseph Tarnopolski, who is legally a
man, walk out of a courtroom, charges
dismissed? Because the prosecutors were
cowards who refused to enforce the law. And
that is what's wrong with Michigan's law, which
was designed to protect young girls, deter older
boys and hopefully decrease the pregnancy and
abortion rates.
Tarnopolski confessed in an interview with
police. He said he had sex with the 14-year-old.
He should not be excused or slapped on the
wrist because a frightened teen, led by her
mother's need for publicity, gave prosecutors
one story and TV reporters another. Who knows
what pressure she may have been under to say,
what? Who knows who pushed her to reveal such
detail.
Doesn't matter. The law doesn't need a confused,
barely teenage girl to charge a man with rape.
The law does it for her.
The intent at the time the law was passed was so
strong that it's a felony punishable by up to 15
years in prison and 25 years on Michigan's public
sex offender list. That's serious.
Oh, and there is one more crime that happened in
this case, besides a law being ignored. It is a
crime that has gotten an increasing amount of
attention in recent months, particularly involving
gay teens.
Bullying.
Bullying is a hate crime.
This is 2010, and whispers in the cafeteria have
been replaced by written posts on hundreds of
Web sites that are connected to hundreds of
other Web sites, a network that can transform a
whisper into universal humiliation.
There ought to be a law against bullying. Oh,
wait. There is.A year ago, President Barack Obama signed a law
making it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. That doesn't go far enough. The law should be amended to make it a crime to assault individuals because they are human. And there should be a law to protect 14-year-old girls from making decisions about sex. Oh, wait! There is. It's just not always enforced.
I haven't recounted details in the case of the
Huron Township 14-year-old who hanged
herself after finding life too hard to bear. I am
not using her name. There are already too many
lurid details and wrong conversations that teens
are having about something as serious as sex.
Our kids are mating like rabbits and we think
there's nothing to be done because it's the times,
it's uncool to complain or because abortions are
a dime a dozen.
Shame on us.
Because what matters most is that a girl is dead,
and if we no longer plan to use the law to deter
underage sex, then we may as well take the law
off the books. And that would be a damn shame,
too."
This column many be found HERE: http://www.freep.com/article/20101112/COL10/11120373/1008/NEWS06/Teens-suicide-in-Huron-Township-is-simply-tragic
Another here: http://www.modernmom.com/hottopic/2010/nov/12/14-year-old-samantha-kelly-commits-suicide-after-b/
