This whole story is a tragedy, from the young lady´s proclamation that she wanted to sleep with the team and her having no self control with her drinking, to the boys thinking their behavior was acceptable and funny. Our social values are wretched; these two boys needed to show self control when abusing a drunk person, and to arrogantly brag about it by posting these pictures was unforgivable. I am very sad for all of them, but I believe the jury had to convict them. Perhaps some young men in the future will know this is not acceptable behavior and there are definitely consequences. I hope parents will have the talk with their teenagers about "Doing the right thing," in a situation like this.

I would not want to be a teenage female now. The peer pressure, Hollywood, singers like Rihanna simulating masturbation on stage. So few decent role models! Fake breasts, fake hair, fake nails, expensive shoes and clothing! It was hard enough back in the 60´s.

It´s better they all learn from this now than later. While it´s important for the young men to learn not to take advantage of drunk girls, the young lady should learn to control her drinking and not to put herself in compromising situations like this.

There is abundant blame to be shared in this story... the rapists, the victim, the families, the coach, the team, the community... all indicators of a culture that no longer recognizes any moral boundaries on behavior. If we need to have a dialogue, let´s discuss what happened to our common values.

P.S., I hope the young lady abstains from booze until she´s of legal age, or perhaps never takes up drinking again.

How does this happen? How can anyone think this is no big deal and is acceptable behavior? We certainly have sunk very low. These boys had so many enablers it is frightening. Alcohol certainly played a large part in this fiasco. I cannot imagine how ignorant they were that they thought they could post these pictures without someone finally contacting the authorities. Shameful, sad, pathetic. While that young woman should have not been violated under any circumstance she has her own set of issues. Wants to sleep with the football team, drinks until she passes out and cannot remember anything. I hope that whole episode has woke her up to her own unacceptable behavior. What the boys did was unlawful what she did was disgusting.

FTA - It also exposed a teenage culture of weak ethics, rampant alcohol abuse and poor family structures that wound up dooming Mays and Richmond, both of whom had promising futures and no criminal past.

All those ´mean´ and ´harsh´ rules that used to be imposed on most teenagers (not all, but most) have been ripped away. How do you like our brave, new world?

IN the 50´s I was a wild child but that sort of activity was totally unheard of.

Bizarre on so many levels. If Steubenville is truly as economically depressed as they say, how are kids still affording liquor and all night parties?
Where are the parents? (Yes, I know...)
I will give the author of this story some credit, though. In the USA Today article that I´d read earlier, they used the word "alleged" rampantly throughout it, in spite of the fact that they were found guilty.

Were the two lads drunk? The quirky part of sexual assault law is that if the lad is drunk, that is not a legal defense. If he is drunk, and the female is drunk, he is sunk.

#2 We all looked like bums in the 60s...it was the age of Aquarius and the cool, fashionable people wore rags, sandals and long, dirty hair.

The rules of dress are much different and way more expensive.

An American Tragedy.

I was in my teens in the late 40´s - early 50´s, and never heard of such goings-on. Even in the early 80´s, a few kids were caught underage drinking, and kicked off the football team just before their Superbowl. That´s how a coach should react in those situations. But they are so dumb now they even post their illegal actions on facebook, thinking no one will do anything about it. Today they are so disgusting.

I know the story is sad and tragic, but I wonder why it has caught so much attention from the mainstream media? How does it fit in with their anti-white, anti-conservative agenda? There were no guns used either.

Americans place too much importance on sex, for gosh sakes.. teens misbehaved. Yack! In a civilized society this would be swept under the rug and everyone gets on with their lives. Sickening.

tnorling: It is an attitude like you have, that has caused such moral decay in this country. It is time we expect more from our teenagers; if we just write this off and let them go unpunished, this kind of horrid behavior will continue. It is time for parents to tell their teenagers to do the right thing and show moral character. I hope tnorling has no children with this kind of attitude.

If I were the mother of this 16 yr old girl she´d spend the next two years in the house. Oh wait....she could call CPS on her cell phone and I´d be in jail for child abuse.

#16 something tells me #15 is not in this country. More likely one of those moral bastions like Amsterdam.

Lets look at total responsibility.

Why was a16 year old girl there?

Where were her parents?

Why was 16 year old drinking?

Who gave the 16 year old alcohol in the first place?

Once the person who allowed the 16 year old to have alcohol saw she was drunk why didn’t they stop giving her alcohol.?

Where were the by stander who saw what the Rapist intent was?

What type of person (piece of s x x x) has sex with a comatose person?

Answer to the last question is;
“they are so low, they have to look up to see down”

Sick--and frightening.

Our celebrity-worship Obama godless culture has come home to roost.

#10, are you excusing the behavior of the ´lads´????

If so, your comments are demented and you should not be allowed on this site. These aren´t ´lads´--they are animals who gang rand a comatose minor girl.

If you were making some other point, please explain.

I hope #15 was making an attempt at sarcasm. (If so, it failed, btw.) If serious, please.

RE: #14 - The national media got wind of it after a copule of local bloggers (one blogger who isn´t local, but who grew up there) started raising major cain about the travesty of the situation and how lenient things were looking for the perps. The local DA didn´t even want the girl to press the issue, and her son is on the football team, and if IIRC, he was there that night. At any rate, that all happened and then the DA (after they had been charged as juveniles, I believe) turned it over to the governor, who told the state AG to prosecute the case. Then anonymous picked up the cause, and the news spread like wildfire.

The vile culture there (and elsewhere, I´m sure) this has brought to light sickens and disgusts me.

Excellent article.

Whole case is disgusting in so many ways: The punks´ degrading attitude toward women, the stupidity of a girl getting passing out drunk at 16, invisible parents who are irresponsible half-wits, underage drinking & debauchery in private homes by kids in their teens.

On the other hand, who gave alcohol to the two young men, aged 16 and 17 and too drunk to drive according to the friend who aggressively took the keys of one of the young men...yet failed to see anything wrong with these two clearly violating a comatose girl. WHAT kind of person not only does that, but engages in a threesome....that alone is deviant behavior. Who does that where others can see it??? What kind of person walks away not realizing how seriously sick and twisted that is?

Sick sick sick

The girl´s parents enabled this situation. What kind of 16 year old "lady" proclaims she wants to sleep with the team? If the parents of girls brought their girls up properly, the boys would have no opportunity to do what they did, and the boys would have more respect for the girls.

In some cultures, underage sex is "condoned" and the pregnant girl is rewarded with all sorts of welfare benefits. One has to wonder what state those underage girls are in when they get pregnant.

It´s after midnight, do you know where your kids are ? Do you know what they are doing ?

No rules, no hope.

Other issues aside, this author is a real sob sister.

Kids grow up a lot faster these days than 50 years ago. These kids could rob a bank or murder the girl, and their records would be sealed as juveniles.

Is this the first time the girl has done anything like this? I know, we´re not even allowed to ask.

I don´t know what the right answer is here, but I will point out, for a "real rape" the punishment would be much more severe.

Wetzel is a terrible journalist and there has been a lot of disinformation put out about this crime.

I´m not excusing what these guys did. They and their parents are getting what they deserve. But hack-tivists got involved and put out a lot of false stories that ended up putting the entire town at risk.

What the guys did was bad enough, but what´s been reported is -- as usual -- journalistic malpractice.

I show stories like this to my daughter all the time in my "don´t drink" lectures. These are some scary tales. Everyone´s got a cell phone -- it´s part of the incentive that got these guys doing what they did. Homemade porn, yeehaw!

All of the parents of all of these kids need to take a good look at their failings and change their ways. It may be too late for some of them, but they have a lot to atone for so they may as well get started.

According to Localleaks FB player Cody Saltsman was the victims ex-boyfriend, and wanted revenge. He got revenge with help from the "Rape Crew" and a date-rape drug.

If the whole truth gets out it´ll be much worse:

http://www.localleaks.me/localleaks/steubenvillefiles/index.html

Oh well, back to my favorite TV show: Sixteen and Pregnant.

How about amputation? That would get the other boys´ attention.

Certainly not the sort of behavior we would expect of our adults...