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I think there are a couple of reasons. The more obvious one is that because these kids were athletes and had formed an athletic clique early in their lives, they were regarded as something special, as athletes often are in our culture. And they were held to a very different standard. As long as they performed on the athletic field, and as long as they provided a way for the people in Glen Ridge, particularly the males, to relive their own youth, they were spared the judgment of influential adults. But I think equally important was the unwillingness of Glen Ridge, and so many other communities like it, to confront sexual issues regarding youngsters. When we read about school district reprimanding a young man who tries to kiss a girl in elementary school, the tendency is to snicker that the school has tried to do something about it. But in fact, the school is behaving honorably and is trying to teach a lesson to the young people involved. In this community, it was regarded as a taint on their reputation, a scandal, to engage any of the boys who misbehaved. So something that started as bra snapping in the hallways of the middle school evolved into exposing oneself in the classrooms of the high school. I found it unbelievable to read that Kevin Scherzer masturbated in the middle of class. Yes, it sounds unbelievable, but I was struck by how banal it seemed to the young women who were describing it. Because this had become such a part of the routine of their life that they were incapable of the rage and resentment that you and I feel when we hear about it. One of the real tragedies of this whole experience was that young women in this community came to feel that the price of acceptance was submissiveness. Unless they were submissive to the demands of these guys and guys like them, they would not be socially accepted in their community and in their school. And they knew that from the beginning and that was the price they continued to pay throughout their adolescence. Were the parents aware that their sons were involved in such predatory sexual behaviors? They may not have known all the specifics, but in a general sense it was very clear that these boys were exceeding normal, conventional bounds, and you couldn't miss it. Several of these boys stole hundreds of dollars from girls at a high school dance, and the principal wrote to the parents about it. The parents were called in for conferences frequently. The behavior, in a general sense, was quite well-known to responsible parents in the community. I'm curious about the way that the boys, and the girls as well, divided all girls into the two familiar categories of "good girl" and "bad girl." There were the girls you call the "Little Mothers," who fawned over the jocks, and then there were the sex objects. How does that perception of femininity develop? Partly it forms because these boys grew up, for the most part, in isolation. Their lives were really contained within this athletic clique. So from a very young age, they were very separate from the general school population. When they met girls, they either perceived them as acolytes, as servants, to tend to their needs or support them, or, as they grew older, as sexual objects. But they never were really put in situations where they came to see young women as individuals, as people whom they needed to deal with and relate with as human beings, like they treated their own male friends. To some extent, I think that schools, and Glen Ridge schools are not alone, are to blame for permitting that isolation, for not requiring these young men to participate in events and experiences as part of their education on an equal footing with young women. Another thing that's crucial in understanding how these boys developed is that of the four defendants, three had no sisters. So in addition to growing up in a male clique, they also didn't have day-to-day experiences encountering young women as human beings. Also, in their families, their fathers were avid in their enthusiasm for sports, and I think exercised a powerful, if not dominant, role in the family. I'm always amazed to hear about how so many communities value sports so much. I didn't grow up myself in that kind of environment, so it seems somewhat alien to me. Well, we live in a fragmented society in which there aren't that many things that hold a community, or even a family, together. And in suburban communities, there is this idea that sports is something that people can rally around, rather than books or the arts. Also, sports provides a way to escape class boundaries. For some of these young men who came from relatively working-class or blue-collar backgrounds, if they excelled in sports and were recognized for their performance, it was a way for the families to gain at least a temporary equality with much more affluent families. This was an upper-middle-class community at its heart, but there were lots of people who worked in well-paying but blue-collar jobs. And if your son was the quarterback on the football team or the cleanup hitter on the baseball team, for that moment, you've gained a certain recognition and fame that puts you on a somewhat equal footing at the country club. Whereas if your son or daughter is the valedictorian, people wouldn't care so much? Right. You know, people would certainly go through the customary rituals of saying congratulations, but it sure wouldn't be the same as if your son scored a touchdown on a Saturday afternoon when 1,000 people were cheering him on. Did you speak with the parents of the defendants? I spoke briefly with the parents of a couple of the defendants, but I did not do extended interviews with them. They were disinclined to participate. But I did interview at great length the parents of some of the young men who were in the basement when the rape occurred and who were present the next day when the bat and the broomstick were handed around. A number of these parents were really ambivalent about what had happened. On one level, they were pleased that their sons had left the basement before the rape was consummated. But on the other hand, they were deeply distressed that their sons had been there in the first place and didn't come forward and tell anybody about what had gone on, and particularly hadn't done anything to help the young woman. I spent a great deal of time with the mother and father of Philip Grant, one of the young men who had been in the basement. His mother, Linda Grant, is a feminist who is responsible for establishing the sexual assault unit of the Essex County Prosecutor's Office long before this had happened. She had long tried to dissuade her son from being a part of this clique of guys because she knew about their behavior and knew how they were treating young women. But she wasn't entirely successful, and to this day, she has regrets that Philip sought out his friends in this group. But it shows, I think, that even a concerned, well-intentioned and highly sensitive parent has difficulty influencing her son unless the rest of the community supports that effort. What made the rape victim, Leslie Faber, vulnerable? To start with, in 1987, about a year and a half before the rape occurred, she was tested by her high school and was found to have an IQ of 49 and a performance level of a second grader. So she did not perceive things that other people with more sophistication might. She was also an athletic youngster and loved sports and loved participating in sports. For her, these guys were in the pantheon of Glen Ridge social life. We are talking about the standout athletes in the community. And to be accepted by them meant, to her, that she could have a social life. There was no greater honor than to get a smile or a greeting from them. One of the truly heart-rending moments came after they raped her with a bat and a broomstick. They told her to leave the basement, and for the next half hour she wandered around the playing field, walking between home plate and the pitcher's mound, hoping that the young man who had been promised to be her date would show up. And of course, he never did. What has Leslie been doing in the last few years? She works in a mall in New Jersey in a department store. She does menial jobs. And she socializes with other youngsters who have handicaps. But no matter how hard her parents try for her to live a normal, mainstream life, I think the scars that have resulted from the rape will never heal. I know that her parents and the prosecutor's office have worked hard to make her understand that she performed a valiant role by testifying in this trial against her hometown heroes. Although the defendants in the case and their friends try to make her feel guilty for taking the stand, I think that the support she's gotten -- not only from her family and the prosecutor but also from people around the country who've written and called -- has made her realize that what she did was a courageous thing, and that people respect her for it. What have the defendants been up to since the rape? Eight years after the rape, two of them were sentenced to maximum terms of 15 years and one to a maximum term of seven years. In actuality, that means that if they behave themselves, two will be out in two years and one will be out in 10 months. Before that, Chris Archer went on to college, where he was accused of raping someone before this case went to trial. But the charges were never pressed by the woman who accused him. I think she feared the pain of having her life exposed. Because the primary defense with Leslie, of course, was to savage her reputation, and anybody else who brought charges against these guys would undoubtedly have met with the same defense strategy. The two twins, Kevin and Kyle Scherzer, worked for a floor finishing firm in New Jersey and lived in the same community with their parents, which was not Glen Ridge but another community. We should also remember that there was a fourth defendant, Bryant Grober. He was convicted of conspiracy and the judge, in his infinite wisdom, sentenced him to three years of probation and community service, and he was not sent to jail. Grober had fellatio with the victim in the basement. His was the first act and set the stage for what was to come. But his lawyer was particularly skillful in separating him from the other boys in the basement and was able to persuade the jury to convict him on a lesser charge. In order to arrive at a guilty verdict for first-degree rape, the jury had to consider two separate counts. They had to find that the defendants had used coercion or force or that the victim was "mentally defective" and that the defendants knew it. Which count did they find? The jury convicted on both counts. It wasn't necessary for the jury to convict on both. It would have been sufficient to find first-degree rape only on one count. But the jury, in its wisdom, convicted on both. This year the appellate court struck down the force and coercion count but sustained the other count, that the boys knew or should have known that she was "mentally defective," which is a legal term. This was a very questionable decision, in my view. One of the things that made the case so compelling is that this was not a victim who had been beaten or tortured. It was not a victim who fled the scene or demanded she be released. It was a victim who really had no defenses against being seduced and hustled and conned into doing this. And yet the boys did have to threaten her, because they themselves knew that what they were doing was wrong. When she left that basement, she knew they could retaliate. And for all of that, the appellate court thinks that no force and coercion were used, but I think they have to place themselves in the mentality and state of mind of this young woman. What motivated Charles Figueroa to step forward? As Charlie would tell you himself, he didn't cast himself in the role of the hero. He was talking to another young man about the rumors that were going around the school, and he was overheard by a male teacher. The teacher said, "What are you talking about, Charlie?" And then Charlie had to make a decision, and I think his decision was shaped by his feelings about how he would respond if his own sister, who was 10 or 11 at that time, would have been the victim. Do you think his status as an outsider because he's black led him to sympathize with Leslie? I'm sure it did, because even though he was an athlete, he was not accepted by these guys. He was tolerated. They had to get along with him because he was part of the team. But he was not trusted. He was not part of the inner circle of the group of confidantes and he wasn't present at many of their social events. So many of the young men in this clique were exceedingly racist. When Kevin Scherzer found out that Charlie had told about what had happened, he said, "The nigger told on us." Charlie was often referred to as "nigger." He came from a highly intelligent, morally sensitive family. The family felt that he should try to integrate himself into the community and get along with others and not stand out, but they also made him very much aware of what was morally the right thing to do. Why do you think the judge let the defendants free after the verdict, until after their appeals were decided? When the judge looked out on that courtroom, what did he see? He saw upper-middle-class families with their grandchildren and their relatives and their elderly grandparents and with priests and ministers and with teammates and classmates, all looking a hell of a lot like the people the judge knew in his own New Jersey suburb every day of his life. And who was missing from this courtroom? A marginalized, retarded young woman. I think he was overly concerned about the future welfare of the families of the defendants. There were legitimate and genuine issues in this case that would be heard on appeal, but there are legitimate and genuine issues in many, many cases. I think his views were reflected when he said, "I don't think they're going to go out on a rape spree." The fact that they had raped this young woman in the most atrocious, horrible way you can imagine was not enough to send them to jail. What can parents do to ensure that their sons develop into men who value women as equals? I think there are a number of things that are very important, and I don't think we should limit this to just parents, because we know how limited their roles can be. We need to think about the schools and other influential adults and what they can do. The terrible flaw in Glen Ridge was that achievement was divorced from character. I think parents need to understand that character is an important thing and that achievement can't be regarded separately. For instance, if the participation in high school athletics for these guys had been preconditioned on qualities of character as well as the ability to throw a football, then they might have turned out a whole lot differently.
The other crucial element is that young women need to be taught to
understand that they have support from their parents and other adults,
that they can be assured that their complaints will be heard and that
they will be defended, that their self-esteem will be supported. The
tragedy in Glen Ridge is that there was one victim of a terrible
crime, but there were dozens and dozens of other girls whose childhood
was scarred, and will be scarred forever, by the submissiveness that
was required for them to be accepted. It's really important for
parents to say: If the price of social acceptance is submissiveness,
we've got to take you someplace where you'll be accepted and you won't
have to pay that price.
Leora Tanenbaum is writing a book about girls labeled "sluts" by their peers. She has written for Ms., the Nation, Seventeen and Newsday. The party from hell: An excerpt from "Our Guys" Was the Glen Ridge rape an aberration, or does it contain larger lessons for us all? Join the debate in Table Talk. |
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