Apparently she had been harassed in school in the past, as well. From what I've read, she went to have a drink with a friend in the courtyard before this happened, and she was found intoxicated and semi-conscious in the courtyard by police two hours after the assault started.

I work with teenagers, and I can't imagine this happening at my school or at any of our associate schools. What a great friend to take her right into the lion's den, too, and I say this because it makes me wonder if her friend knew what was going to happen since it took TWO HOURS for the cops to show.

But to your question: How did we come to this? Personally I think it all comes down to accountability and responsibility and the fact that no one seems to want to deal with either anymore. Toss in a lack of desire to deal with honesty for flavoring, and you have this. If people don't want to be accountable or take responsibility for their actions, then after awhile it becomes acceptable, whether it's right or wrong, truth or lie. Kids learn the basics like this from their parents, not at school, and quite frankly there is a great deal of turmoil about what schools should and shouldn't teach. I spend 9 weeks on Ethics in one of my classes, and in some states that just wouldn't be allowed because the insinuation would be that I was trying to impose my moral code on other people's children, which isn't the case, but that's the reality.

That said, I'd like to know why this courtyard was accessible to the students and where the supervision was located. Dances here have one entrance/exit. Off duty police officers are always present. Administration and staff are, as well, and they are assigned to specific locations. All security cameras are on, and sections of the school that students aren't permitted in are locked down. You can't prevent everything, but no one checked this area for two hours?? I'm not putting the blame on the administration, mind you, because this is a heinous crime that they did not commit, but they do have some responsibility here. But something wasn't right with these kids to begin with (yeah, I'm stating the obvious) to even think about, let alone do, something like this.

You have to have a license to fish, drive, get married, teach, practice medicine, keep pets, and many other things, yet anyone can reproduce and "raise" kids who won't think twice about doing something like this. I'm not seriously implying a license to reproduce, mind you, but parenting is not as easy as having sex, popping the kid out, and putting it in front of the TV/computer/gaming console until said child rebels/moves out. But anything more would require responsibility, accountability, and some harsh, cold honesty. We can't have that, can we? That's how we came to crimes like these--and even worse--that are popping up in the news with more and more frequency.