<p>A 12-min video of an Ohio State freshman (a former student a Steubenville High) has emerged, where he is seen at a party laughing and making sickening comments about a 16 year girl who was just gang raped. He is not charged in the crime.
Look</a> Who's Already in Trouble Over the Steubenville Rape Case - National - The Atlantic Wire</p>
<p>Should the university expel the student for objectionable speech/conduct committed during HS?</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone should be expelled for non-criminal conduct during high school, no.</p>
<p>The facts matter, but in general a public institution can’t punish somebody for speech, even if it’s gross.</p>
<p>I’m going to assume that OSU has lawyers involved with any action they take or have taken, and that most likely we won’t know exactly why he’s gone, if he is.</p>
<p>No. The speech may be ugly, but it’s protected speech. </p>
<p>Besides, many kids say really stupid, insensitive, and horrible things when they’re with their friends. If we record many kids, we probably can catch them saying some awful things once in awhile. </p>
<p>Instead, use the incident as a teaching moment. Don’t ruin the kid’s life.</p>
<p>Hopefully this kid has grown since high school but I don’t think he should be punished now.</p>
<p>If he did not commit the crime, then no matter how foul and cruel his speech, he should not be expelled. The court of public opinion will hopefully punish him enough. I feel sorry for his parents, they must feel awful to have raised this callous man child.</p>
<p>Students are held to that Uni’s Code of Conduct. A crime or a finding of criminal guilt is not the bar to determine expulsion. </p>
<p>I’ll bet you OSU attorneys are looking to see what action can be taken.</p>
<p>OSU isn’t looking to imprison the dude. But they are in their rights to sever their relationship with him and the university.</p>
<p>Just like your future employers can fire you for behavior they deem detrimental – even if it has nothing to do with the job.</p>
<p>Students don’t have tenure. </p>
<p>The piggish things this guy is spewing are disgusting. he is an animal. Why on earth would an institution of higher learning want this gorilla in their student body? At some point, I suppose, someone is going to test these horrifying men’s “free speech” against the hate speech laws. Because the things they think it is all right to say about a woman are questionable, at best.</p>
<p>A lot more community service and outward bound for the boys, a heck of a lot less MTV and internet porn. There are just too many of these incidents, these days, and I’m starting to feel very sorry for this generation of women stuck with these “young men.” </p>
<p>My heart breaks for this girl and her family.</p>
<p>Just started following this case…so very very sad. Hard to believe that this stuff can happen.
I watched part of the video…could not watch anymore. It appears that this student witnessed what happened to this girl and did nothing…laughs about it. Apparently a lot of people witnessed what happened and did nothing…sick!</p>
<p>This is more than a simple case of freedom of speech. He isn’t just talking about rape and making fun of it…he is talking about what he witnessed! And laughing!! Only 2 people have been charged and we have to wait to see if more are charged. </p>
<p>Speech is protected…but what about his conduct? Doubt they can expel him, but they can probably revoke his scholarship if they want(I did read in one place where he has a scholarship, not sure of this is true).</p>
<p>And to tell the truth, I care more about the victim’s future than this scumbag.</p>
<p>excellent point hawkbird. If he were speaking this way about a murder he had witnessed, would we even ASK if he could be expelled? I doubt it.</p>
<p>I doubt seriously that the young man in question evolved into someone capable of such hate speech because of “MTV and internet porn” as someone here suggested. From what I can tell from watching young people interact, I believe that relations between males and females are at the worst point they have been in memory, maybe the worst in US history. There are more and more emotionally broken young men than there have ever been before, and I really doubt that labeling them as monsters will improve the situation. Some serious effort needs to be made to repair relations between young men and young women and between men and women of all ages. The war between the sexes produces casualties of number and severity way beyond what most people can imagine.</p>
<p>Yeah, well… My daughters don’t seem to get involved with these horror stories, though I have met them around here and told them to steer clear. They adore their father and don’t “hate” real men at all. Neither do I.</p>
<p>But, I have no patience for this kind of thing, and nobody else should, either. And if you don’t think internet porn and MTV are effecting the way these young men view and treat women, you haven’t read the studies on what porn does to adolescent males. I feel sorry for them, but I don’t want them anywhere near my daughters. Sorry, but why should I?</p>
<p>ETA: as I have said in these types of threads before, my girls have many friends who are boys and both have dated excellent young men who it is a pleasure to be around. This is not ubiquitious, but it is wayyyy too prevalent.</p>
<p>Could the fact that he is wearing an Ohio State shirt while spewing filth on the video (i.e. causing reputational damage to the institution) be cause for Ohio State to expel him?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And why do you think that is?</p>
<p>Echo those who say that Ohio State may have serious issues…especially possible constitutional/due process issues from being expelled for speech…even disgusting speech like that. </p>
<p>However, the video in question is such that a reasonable person could conclude he has basically admitted to at least knowing about and even possibly participated in the rape in question. </p>
<p>As such, I’m surprised he has not been questioned extensively or even arrested yet as another suspected participant. </p>
<p>Just listening to him speak of the rape in the way he and the others in the video did is vile and makes me wonder about the extent of the corrupt “good ole boy” nature of Steubenville.</p>
<p>The rape occured on August 11, 2012. Thus, the man speaking in the video wasn’t in high school anymore. Was he a football recruit? When does the preseason begin for Ohio State?</p>
<p>They can expel him for conduct. The video was made contemporaneously. He wasn’t talking about someone who was raped last week; he was talking about someone who had just been dragged around while unconscious and raped. The conduct they should expel him for is making a video instead of grabbing that cell phone that was being used to record, and using it to call 911 to get help for this young girl.</p>
<p>OSU issued a statement saying that Michael Nodianus, the person in the video, was a student through Dec 12, which was the last day of the 1st semester. The implication was that he is no longer a student there, but the statement was somewhat opaque as the new semester doesn’t start til January 7. OSU would not clarify the statement. </p>
<p>I don’t think the video is just “speech.” To me, he admits criminal conduct. If I were an official at OSU I’d ask him to come in and answer a few questions. Maybe OSU did. If he then plead the 5th, OSU might have grounds to expel. </p>
<p>In any case, he may no longer be there.</p>
<p>I’m bothered by Anonymous’s tactics, but if half what they are saying is true…WOW!!! According to Anonymous, the prosecutor tried to dissuade the girl and her parents from bringing charges, saying a conviction was unlikely and her reputation would be in shreds. Again, according to Anonymous, she left out the detail that one of the parties was at her house and her son was one of those present. Obviously, I’ve NO idea if that’s true and now of course independent counsel from the state AG’s office have been brought in.</p>
<p>Update: Steubenville has launched a website about the case.<a href=“http://steubenvillefacts.squarespace.com/info/[/url]”>http://steubenvillefacts.squarespace.com/info/</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I hope so for the sake of Ohio State’s students.</p>