Ask Teachers In Sillsbee What They Do For a Living And They'll Say Stay Out Of Bolton's Way

Frequent reader(s) of this blog know Mondays are the harbingers of despair...erm...we mean know that as card carrying members of the local educorporate training facility we often write about our brothers and sisters who worship with us here at the altar of knowledge.

But sometimes those peers are high on incense.

A high school girl from Texas — we don't know her name — claimed several boys forced her into a room, locked the door, held her down and sexually assaulted her at a party when she was 16 years old in 2008. Witnesses said that when others heard her yelling “Stop” and started banging on the door, the boys escaped through a window, leaving their clothes behind.

Now you would think, given the relative state of undress of the perpetrators, it would have been pretty easy to track them down. But wait, it gets even easier.

Witnesses later said Rakheem Bolton, one of the boys involved, returned to the house for his clothes, shouting obscenities about the girl to the owner of the house.

That's right, not only did this fine specimen of Texas manhood return to the scene of the crime to retrieve his Abercrombie and Fitch, he took a little time out of his busy schedule being a felon to voice his displeasure with the pleasure provided by the young lady he had just victimized.

OK, so you got witnesses, evidence and a perp who apparently isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. Open and shut, right?

Did we mention this is Texas?

A grand jury in Silsbee, Texas, refused to return charges against Bolton, a football and basketball star at Silsbee High School.

Now, before you go getting all up on your high horse about this, remember, the rapist played two sports.

The district attorney said publicly he wasn't surprised, noting that the grand jury wasn't sure about a lack of consent. He mentioned that all of the individuals had been drinking.

Little known fact: Texas Public Act 65-19(d) states that when there is underage drinking going on  being dragged into a room, trapped and heard screaming for help is not cause to suspect fowl play because, hey, there's drinking going on and boys will be boys, you know? Oh, and she was probably asking for it, being a girl and all don't you know.

So, the adults looked into the situation, made their determination and life goes on, right?

Four months later, the girl, a cheerleader for Silsbee High, was cheering for her team when Bolton went to the free-throw line. She had been cheering for the team the whole game, but when Bolton went to the line, she didn't cheer. She folded her arms and stood still. She had done this before without incident.

Oh, now that's definitely a bad attitude right there. Somebody needs to set this girl straight. We can't have this kind of disrespect and open insolence here at Silsbee High. Where are the school officials?

School officials, including — get this — the Silsbee principal and the district superintendent, confronted her for not cheering and ordered her to chant with the others: “Two, four, six, eight, ten! Go, Rakheem! Put it in!”

'Bout time somebody in authority said something to this girl. After all, these kids have to learn respect, they...wait...what was she supposed to cheer?

“Two, four, six, eight, ten! Go, Rakheem! Put it in!”

Wow. How can you pack that much stupid in just one city? There's got to be some sort of stupid compression algorithm operating here. First the grand jury can't indict a kid who came back naked and yelled about the girl he'd just raped because they were too busy trying to pick their noses without poking themselves in the eye, and now the chief educational office of the district and the chief educational office in the high school in question who somehow managed to dress themselves and get to a game exhibit a degree of cluelessness truly galactic in scope.

This is going to make Silsbee a tourist attraction for sure. We can see it now, "Visit Silsbee Texas, We Make Texas Smarter Because Most Of The Stupid Is Here."

It didn't end there. Her father was incensed. He wouldn't let it go. In part because of the D.A.'s public comments about the earlier grand jury proceeding, another grand jury was seated and a special prosecutor appointed. This grand jury indicted Bolton and another boy on a felony charge of sexual assault of a child.

Oops. Looks like the fun's over there Rakheem. Time to pay the piper.

Bolton wound up pleading guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault.

Sure, but the superintendent made him autograph fifty basketballs for the kids down at the elementary school. Role model you know. And when the principal testified as a character witness, he said it was just a youthful indiscretion, a one time mistake by an otherwise good boy who has really learned his lesson and taken responsibility for his actions.

The problem lies with the school. Here's how bad it was, how much the school wanted this Bolton kid to play. After he threatened a science teacher, his penalty was lessened from suspension to an in-school suspension so he'd be able to play in the playoffs.In fact, according to U.S. Supreme Court documents, the school actually shortened its school day on the second day of that suspension to allow Bolton to be on the bus for an out-of-town game.

They have a science class? Doesn't that sort of thing cut into basketball practice?