Since BuzzFeed published the Stanford Victim’s letter, the internet has been going wild over the case. People all over the country have been feeling anger and hurt over the lenient court sentencing that attacker, Brock Turner, received after being found guilty for three counts of felonies. Each day, words that have been said in the courtroom has been released. Such as Turner’s statement he read to the court.
“I never want to attend a social gathering that involves alcohol or any situation where people make decisions based on the substances they have consumed,” Turner said. Alcohol does not make people sexually assault other people. It does not alter one's mind to do so. If that was the case, sexual assault would be more common than every one in five women.
In the statement he read to the court, he also said he looked up to his swim team and reciprocated their party habits. Since he was a freshman, he did not know better but to follow his newfound family on the swim team. We were all freshmen once. We all learned the dos and dont's of college and drinking. We have all been to a party once or at least seen one in the movies. College may take some getting used to, but by the time you turn 18, you should have developed morals and ethics. You should know the difference between right and wrong. You should know that it is never OK to take advantage of someone when they’re unconscious. Being the new kid on campus does not give you the right to blame others for your responsibilities. So, you saw one of your teammates drink alcohol and bring a girl home. You tried to do the same, but what was so wrong about your choice is that it was not consensual.
In Turner’s dad’s statement he said, “His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.” Since his own father does not admit what his son did was wrong, it would be hard for Turner to ever understand. How he described the sexual assault as, “20 minutes of action” shows how little he thinks of something very serious. He violated a woman that he did not even know. Didn’t have a care if she was moving or not. That isn’t action. That isn’t something his father should take lightly. Turner's mom said, "He was a shy and awkward 19-year-old, far away from home trying to fit in with the swimmers he idolized." Turner has his own soul and body, he is his own person. It doesn't matter if his friends were sexually assaulting people or not, that does not give him the right to do the same thing. From a young age, kids are taught that sexual assault is illegal, so he should not be let off so easy because he was awkward and young. If the attacker and his family still believe that what he did was just alcohol taking over his body, that is what’s wrong with the world today.
People need to learn respect for others. They need to learn at a young age that we were all born the same and we all feel physical and emotional pain. If Turner has a lack of appetite for rib-eye steaks for committing a crime, imagine the victim. She has to live with what happened for the rest of her life too, but the person who attacked her isn’t even admitting what he did was wrong even after being found unanimously guilty. He is being put in protective custody from being hurtby other inmates. But where was her protection before the assault took place? It should have never happened. Sexual assault is one of the worst things you can do to a person. You take their voice and body away from them. We should teach more respect, instead of telling young girls to cover up. We shouldn’t criticize victims of sexual assault by saying they had it coming since they showed too much skin or they drank too much alcohol. They did nothing wrong. Sexual assault and rape shouldn’t be as common as it is today. Hopefully, the Brock Turner case is a wake-up call to society to take sexual assault and rape more seriously.
