Reply #17: it doesn't mean that he did or didn't rape [View All]

[toastbutter]

her which was exactly my point. What I said is that there has been no adjudication that he is a rapist. As far as the law goes, and the school has to go with the legal determination - he is not a rapist.

Whether he actually did or didn't rape her is not the issue. What IS the issue is the judicial determination. Most of "us" can think whatever you want. I don't know enough to know one way or the other whether he actually raped her. The one thing I know indisputably is that he was not convicted of it.

Prosecutors make charging and plea decisions based on a host of factors, but largely based on the evidence. The fact that he was allowed to plea to misdemeanor assault most likely meant that there was not enough evidence to likely get a conviction.

---Here's what you don't get. This is not "student speech". When she is acting IN HER CAPACITY AS A CHEERLEADER she has much more limited freedom as to her speech. Clothing, for example, is a form of speech. She doesn't get to choose her particular cheerleader uniform apart from the one mandated for all cheerleaders.

Again, that's the distinction most people are missing. WHile acting AS A CHEERLEADER, her speech and other behavior can be significantly restricted beyond that even on campus activity when she is NOT.