Dad Defends 15-Year-Old Accused Of Sexual Assault: 'Lots Of Girls Want My Son’
A 15-year-old girl accused a 15-year-old boy of sexually assaulting her during a De La Salle High School football game in Concord, California.
The boy plays for the De La Salle freshman football team and the girl attends the neighboring Carondelet High School. De La Salle is an all-boys Catholic school with a notable football program.
Neither the boy or girl were publicly named as they are both minors.
The father of the accused boy rejects the allegation, saying what happened between his son and the girl was consensual.
He said,
He's tall, dark and handsome. He plays for De La Salle, there's a lot of girls that want to be with my son. When young, fast girls see something they like, they go after it.
Just to be totally clear, even if a boy is "tall, dark and handsome," he can still sexually assault someone.
The boy's father said,
They were just two teenagers having sex; they were just doing it at the wrong place, at the wrong time.
He went on to say the 15-year-old girl had "chased my son down."
The girl and her father disagree completely with that assessment.
According to her father, she, as well as other girls, had been receiving inappropriate texts from the boy. She went to confront him at the football game, which is when the alleged assault occurred.
Surveillance footage reportedly shows parts of the assault.
The girl said,
Boys need to know that no means no, period. Point blank.
The football game was on November 18. The girl told her principal about it on November 21 and an investigation was launched.
The boy was arrested a week later. The girl's father said,
I had to sit back and wait while the kid was still going to school across the street from my daughter after he raped her.
Contra Costa prosecutors received the case on Thursday, but declined to immediately file charges. They asked for further investigation.
The boy was released from juvenile hall on Thursday night.
De La Salle released a simple statement about the case, declining to give specifics.
The girl's father believes the school is more interested in protecting the football team than his daughter. He explained,
The football team should not be their focus. A child was hurt. It shouldn't be their focus to say he wasn't on the varsity team. They mention more about the football team than what happened.
The boy's father himself is a registered sex offender. He has a molestation conviction involving a child under 14 years old. He argued,
Just because my background is what it is — I'm not that type of individual and neither is my son.
The father went on to say the boy had a rough childhood as his father was in prison.
The girl said,
To be completely honest, my school counselors have helped me a lot and my friends. And just knowing that in the long run, I'll be okay. I can't just let this stop me, just because this happened. I need to show him that no, I'm not going to stop.
High school students are protected under Title IX rights. Schools are supposed to investigate and provide help when a student comes forward with a sexual assault allegation.
Citations: Daily Mail, East Bay Times
