A sad commentary on our times.  This story reprinted courtesy 
http://www.espn.go.com/magazine, from ESPN magazine:

"The most important recruit in UAB history was a freckle-faced, carrot-
topped 14-year-old named Brittany, who finished high school in under a 
year. UAB pursued the 5'1", 120-pound bookworm like it would a 
quarterback who could rope the deep out. Brittany, who looks like a 
cross between Little Orphan Annie and Molly Ringwald, grew up an hour 
down Route 280 in tiny Childersburg (pop. 4900). Frank and Jackie 
Benefield, as country as cornbread, had been trying for a child for 20 
years before Brittany was born. They called her the miracle baby. When 
other children were stuck on c-a-t, Brittany could rattle off b-l-u-e-b-
e-r-r-y. Her second grade teacher suggested Brittany jump through to 
third grade. Jackie Benefield wasn't sure, but figured the teacher knew 
best.

The Benefields were protective of their only child, who had her dad's 
wide smile and her mom's soft eyes. Brittany's social life revolved 
around a church youth group, its skate parties and Bible classes. Her 
folks were strict about what she could do. While other sixth-graders 
rehashed Home Improvement, Brittany kept quiet about her favorites -- 
Bugs, Daffy and Mister Ed. When Brittany was in seventh grade, Jackie 
bought her a new dress for the spring dance. But when a student 
threatened to bring a gun, the school cancelled the event. That's when 
the Benefields decided to home-school Brittany. The child prodigy 
earned her degree at 13. Still, Frank, now 60, and Jackie, 54, worried 
about Brittany's future. "I always thought, if we just lived to see her 
educated and able to take care of herself, she'd be okay," says Jackie.

In March 1999, 14-year-old Brittany was accepted at Auburn, making 
headlines in The Birmingham News. When her scholarship money got lost 
in a bureaucratic maze, Auburn told the family not to worry, they'd 
hold her place for the next class. A few weeks later, though, Jackie 
got a call from UAB. They wanted Brittany too, and they were offering 
full tuition. Jackie was thrilled -- and ner-vous; Birmingham, after 
all, was the big city.

Brittany, having spent day after monotonous day at home, couldn't stop 
smiling. Her plan was to finish law school before she turned 21. As it 
turns out, Brittany Benefield's day in court arrived three years ahead 
of schedule -- not as a lawyer, but as a plaintiff accusing 26 UAB 
athletes of sexual abuse and a university for its culpability in the 
matter. Acting through her mother, Brittany Benefield has filed 
lawsuits under Title IX in state and federal courts. The Benefields are 
suing UAB trustees, administrators, coaches, athletes, resident 
assistants, police and others. At the time of publication, the 
Benefields were seeking $80 million in compensatory and punitive 
damages.

This is the story of what happens when a naïve 15-year-old prodigy 
collides with an upward-reaching football program, some of whose 
players feel like they own the campus.

***
When the Benefields first met then-UAB president Ann Reynolds and VP of 
student affairs Virginia Gauld, they made their reservations known, 
according to statements contained in their complaints. The Benefields 
say they told the UAB brass that Brittany had never been away from them 
for more than a day. "I was worried about her crossing the street or 
someone snatching her," says Jackie. A meeting was set up with Warren 
Hale, director of student housing, and Susan McKinnon, assistant VP of 
enrollment management. The Benefields claim they were assured by talk 
of security escorts. According to their complaints, they were told the 
dorm to which Brittany would be assigned, Rast Hall, housed only 
freshmen and had security every night, and that residents needed a key 
to enter the building. The Benefields allege Hale and McKinnon also 
promised that one of the girl's suitemates would be a resident adviser, 
a student who would monitor Brittany's activities and mentor her. The 
UAB officials wanted Brittany to enroll immediately for the winter 
quarter in December 1999. Her folks wanted to wait until she was 15. 
They agreed that Brittany would begin in the spring, a month after her 
15th birthday.

Of the roughly 700 men who lived on campus, nearly one in nine played 
football. 

From the start, Brittany was a minor celebrity at UAB, although she 
says the other students saw her as more circus freak than star. "I felt 
very out of place," she says. "When people found out my age, they were 
like, 'what are you doing here?' I mean, it was okay to hear that now 
and then, but 10 times a day? I was pretty lonely."

Her suitemates, who'd been on campus for six months, had their own 
friends. With no one to talk to -- or watch TV or grab a burger with -- 
her days dragged by in solitary routine: wake up, go to class, head 
back to the dorm, study. Her parents brought her home almost every 
weekend, with Jackie working longer shifts just so she could pick up 
Brittany on Thursdays.

Brittany carried a 3.5 GPA in basic freshman courses in her first 
quarter. The Benefields say they wanted her to take the summer off, but 
she was adamant about continuing classes so she could graduate in three 
years. "I figured if I made her come home, she'd just be staring at the 
four walls," says Jackie. "I guess that was my mistake." To Brittany, 
the only bummer was that she'd have to change dorms, because hers would 
be used to house summer-camp students.

***

Drenched in sweat on a steamy Louisiana night, helmets in hands, the 
UAB squad stomped and hollered and let the football world know they 
could no longer be ignored. As 86,000 dazed LSU fans watched, the 
visitors jumped on the Tiger's face at midfield. On Sept. 23, 2000, the 
Blazers -- upstarts with a cartoon dragon on their helmets -- took home 
a 13-10 upset victory and a $410,000 paycheck. Who-AB? Not anymore.

Man, you should've heard Ol' Watson before the game that night, down in 
the bowels of Tiger Stadium just before his Blazers took the field. The 
air was heavy with sweat and menthol; Brown was all fire and 
brimstone: "Fellas, lemme tell ya 'bout the irony we have here 
tonight," he told them. "Those guys in the other dressing room are no 
better than you. Every day you go up against guys who are as good as 
they are. I know that. You know that. They just don't know it yet. But 
tonight -- tonight! -- they're gonna fiiiiind out."

Brown took a long slow breath, and the team recited the Lord's Prayer. 
Brown glanced around the room like a proud father. His baby had sure 
grown up fast. The 2000 UAB Blazers looked nothing like the rag-tag 
squad that got blistered by Auburn in '96. Out were the D1 castoffs. In 
were speedy cover-corners and run-stuffing linemen from Atlanta, the 
Florida Panhandle and every holler in Alabama. Brown turned sleeper 
recruits into nasty playmakers. He took Prop 48 kids, gave 'em some 
love and sharpened the chips on their shoulders. It worked in the 
weight room, on the field and in the classroom (more than 60% of the 
team members were honor students). Sure, they had a few renegades. 
Heck, everybody's got a few, right?

Everyone inside that cramped room knew they were building something 
here. Most teams have more cliques than a sorority house, but the 
Blazers were different. They were tight. Maybe it was Coach Brown's pep 
talks. Maybe it was month after month of gut-busting practice. Or maybe 
it was the players' visibility. Of the roughly 700 men who lived on 
campus, nearly one in nine played for Brown. They literally had the run 
of the place.

***

Just a post pattern from the UAB practice field is Blazer Hall, a 12-
sided, eight-story, antiseptic building that resembles a hospital ward 
more than a dorm. In the summer of 2000, Blazer housed mostly football 
players, a few basketball players, a handful of women -- and one 15-
year-old girl.

The family's complaints allege that when all of Blazer's residents 
assembled for an informal introduction on a June evening, an RA scanned 
the crowd and paused on Brittany, uttering an introduction that still 
rings in Brittany's ears: "Okay, this is the 15-year-old y'all been 
hearing about." Brittany remembers a split-second of silence giving way 
to the sound of 40 heads turning at once.

If Brittany had been lonely from day one on campus, she felt absolutely 
isolated during those first days in Blazer Hall. The Benefields say in 
their complaints that, because the school didn't offer her another RA 
for a roommate, they chose a single room for Brittany. They say they 
preferred Brittany living alone to her sharing space with female 
students who might have beer in the fridge and boyfriends staying over. 
On her third day in Blazer, Brittany says, she entered the elevator and 
encountered a mountain of a man, a Blazer football player with a bushy 
afro and hands as thick as cinder blocks. Brittany tried to avoid 
making eye contact, but the man faced her as the doors shut. "Whussup, 
shorty?" he huffed, according to Brittany. She remembers feeling the 
blood drain from her face. He said he knew her; she was that child 
genius. He asked if she'd help him with a paper. Brittany panicked and 
stammered: "I'm 15."

"Well, you don't look it," she says he told her.

Brittany's emotions swirled as she stepped off the elevator. The 
comment about her appearance transformed her initial fear into a 
feeling that surprised her: acceptance. Maybe she belonged in this 
strange place after all. "That made me feel a lot better," Brittany 
says. That night, she says, the player brought his paper -- and a six-
pack of beer -- to her room. Brittany says she had never had a beer -- 
or any kind of alcohol -- but felt compelled to accept when she was 
offered one. According to Brittany, one led to another. And another. 
Brittany got wasted. She'd never even kissed a boy, and now she was 
making out with the player. Then they had sex.

The next morning, the burly football players seemed a lot less menacing 
to her. In fact, Brittany says, they began to treat her as if she 
belonged. That night, another player asked for homework help, and 
brought over more beer. Brittany says she got drunk again and the 
player persuaded her to perform oral sex. The next day, she says she 
got drunk and had sex with a third player, who introduced her to 
pot. "I felt accepted," Brittany says. "I felt like they were my 
friends."

The players joked with her that she was becoming their "play thing." 
She began hanging with them all the time. They'd sit outside Blazer 
downing beer, bumming cigarettes, watching cars go by.

On Aug. 7, the school got the exposure from its star recruit that it 
had hoped for. The Birmingham News ran a front-page story about 
Brittany and a 16-year-old male student, headlined "Whiz Kids." On 
campus, though, Brittany was no longer known as a 15-year-old prodigy, 
but as that 15-year-old rumored to be doing half the football team.

According to an e-mail from Hale attached to the complaints, he states, 
having heard the rumors, that he called Brittany in for a meeting with 
a UAB police officer. They asked if she was having sex with football 
players. She said no. The complaints allege the school didn't 
investigate any further, nor did it notify the Benefields or Alabama's 
Department of Human Resources of their concerns of drugs and sexual 
activities, despite a state law requiring they do so in the case of a 
minor. However, the e-mail reflects that Hale did talk to the 
Benefields regarding Brittany "hosting guests." The Benefields 
acknowledge Brittany stopped coming home as much, and that she slept 
all weekend when she did return. But they say they figured she was just 
overworked.

An e-mail from Hale, included in the complaints, indicates that he did 
meet with Blazers special teams coach Larry Crowe, letting the coach 
know that school administrators had heard rumors about his players and 
Brittany. According to the e-mail, Hale told Crowe that a girl 
Brittany's age could not consent to sex. No matter the situation, it 
was statutory rape. Later that week, the complaints allege, Brown told 
his team to stay away from Brittany. "If this gets outside of me," he 
said, "I can no longer help you." He allegedly added that it could 
mean "jail time."

  
At first, Brittany felt accepted when the UAB athletes paid attention 
to her. 

Apparently the Blazers didn't heed the warnings. Some team members 
interviewed by The Magazine echo comments in the complaints that a few 
days later, Coach Crowe pointed to Blazer Hall and told his players to 
stay out of Brittany's room. The next week, according to the 
complaints, the players got a warning from "Officer Andy" -- a.k.a. 
Anderson Williams Jr. -- a UAB cop who was moonlighting as the team's 
unofficial speed coach. Before lecturing the Blazers about lengthening 
their running strides, he allegedly reminded the players to "be 
careful" with the underage girl.

The Blazers opened the 2000 season on Sept. 7 with a 20-15 home victory 
over Chattanooga. Brittany recalls feeling like she was part of the 
program, cheering like they'd just beaten Alabama. She'd grown even 
more alienated from other students, but now she didn't give a damn what 
those losers thought. Though she had moved back into her old dorm, 
Brittany's partying escalated from beer to whiskey to vodka. Other 
students say her room reeked of weed, but that was just the beginning. 
She told The Magazine that the players turned her on to coke, ecstasy 
and LSD, and she says one player even tried to turn her out. She 
declined to let him pimp her, but she kept sleeping with football 
players and began hooking up with some members of the basketball team. 
She was being passed around like a mix tape. In all, she alleges, more 
than two dozen Blazer athletes took their turn. The complaints even 
allege that an employee of the UABPD and the student who plays Blaze, 
the school's mascot, came knocking on Brittany's door.

Experts say her attitude was not unusual for a female who has been 
sexually abused. "It's not uncommon for a woman who has been raped to 
engage in promiscuous behavior," says New York-based sports 
psychologist Mitch Abrams, who specializes in trauma-abuse 
counseling. "People say, 'See, she's a slut,' or 'See, she loved it.' 
But rape is about power, not sex. Someone took her power and now she 
was trying anything to get it back."

Brittany tells of one especially harrowing night, when she was invited 
to the room of two football players. When she walked in, she says, two 
other men were there as well and each of the four took his turn with 
her. She recalls leaving the dorm in tears, telling no one.

Later that September, a UAB police officer and other administrators 
called in Brittany to discuss a curfew, according to the complaints, 
and Brittany was again asked about her sexual involvement with athletes 
and drug use. She denied it all. The complaints allege they didn't push 
the matter further, nor did they alert the Benefields, who weren't even 
notified when her GPA plummeted to 1.9.

That Saturday, the Blazers -- following their huge win at LSU -- 
crushed Louisiana-Lafayette, 47-2.

Meanwhile, Brittany's downward spiral continued. She stopped going to 
class and got high day and night. When some of the players stopped 
coming around, Brittany began using meal and rent money to buy drugs, 
and, according to the complaints, on Nov. 7, the school sent an 
eviction notice to Brittany rather than her parents, even though the 
Benefields were financially responsible for her room and board. The 
Benefields allege UAB didn't contact them until five weeks later, when 
Jackie received a shocking call telling her that her daughter was 
getting kicked out of her dorm for not paying rent.

The Benefields raced to UAB, but Brittany was nowhere to be found. 
Frank Benefield says he could barely speak when he filed a runaway 
report with the UABPD. The next morning, the Benefields' phone rang. It 
was Brittany, asking to be picked up at the local airport. Her parents 
made the 12-mile drive, but Brittany wasn't there. Instead, she and a 
friend, a reputed Birmingham drug dealer, were breaking into the 
Benefield home, swiping a handgun and blank checks.

The next day, Sunday, Dec. 17, the Birmingham police nabbed Brittany 
and her friend at a pizza parlor for trying to pass a bad check. When 
they arrived on the scene, says Jackie, Brittany broke down. Their 
miracle baby, tears streaming and body trembling, admitted she'd spent 
all her rent money on drugs and that she'd passed a couple of dozen bad 
checks. The Benefields took their daughter back to Childersburg, but 
Brittany disappeared again after one night. Four days passed before she 
called her father from a gas station near campus. She told him she'd 
been staying in a boarded-up apartment. She wanted to kill herself. "I 
was a zombie," Brittany says. "I was a broken person. The things I'd 
been through were unreal."

Two hours later, Jackie opened her front door, laid eyes on her baby 
and winced. "I didn't know her," she says. "I saw her face. I saw her 
hair, but when I looked into her eyes, they were hollow. I didn't see 
who was behind them." The Benefields put their daughter in rehab. It 
was Christmas Eve.

Four days earlier, according to the complaints, UAB president Ann 
Reynolds had received an e-mail from VP Virginia Gauld, telling her 
that the prize recruit had tragically spiraled into drugs, alcohol and 
degradation. The e-mail's last line was chilling: "Some times [sic] we 
win and sometimes we lose!" Reynolds' reply was just as cold. The 
Benefields' suits allege that Reynolds quipped the whiz kid's story had 
the makings of a "B movie," and that "she was clearly overprotected and 
doted on by elderly parents. Warren Hale and others are to be praised 
for trying."

So if everyone was "trying," is anyone to blame? None of the defendants 
will comment on the case, but all have either denied the Benefields' 
allegations or moved to dismiss the complaints in court. "We're not 
called on to defend factual statements," says Doug Jones, who 
represents six UAB administrators. "We're called on to defend legal 
allegations." Ken Lay, a public defender for 17 Blazer athletes, 
released this statement: "Most of the athletes we represent know little 
or nothing about Ms. Benefield or her allegations."

Brittany's story may prove to be the most extreme recent case of sexual 
abuse in college sports, but it is not unique. Since August, athletes 
have been accused of sexual assault and rape at Colorado, Georgia, LSU, 
Notre Dame and Oklahoma State. And those are just the public 
accusations. In many college football towns, police forces have long 
had officers designated to deal with athlete-related investigations. 
They're often the first dispatched to the scene and have a prior 
working relationship with coaches. The Oklahoma State victim, for 
instance, has alleged that a police officer tried to coerce her into 
signing a prosecution waiver while she was in the ICU.

"There is such an incestuous relationship [between police and athletic 
departments]," says Kathy Redmond, founder of the National Coalition 
Against Violent Athletes. "It's very frightening." Seven years ago, 
Redmond accused Huskers DT Christian Peter, who'd already been accused 
twice of assaulting women, of raping her four years earlier. No 
criminal charges were filed against Peter, but Redmond's lawyers 
brought a civil suit against him and the university. Soon, she was 
taking on an entire football-mad state.

Redmond's lawyer filed a Title IX lawsuit contending the school was 
liable under the federal law because the university failed to provide a 
safe environment from sexual harassment -- and that inhibited Redmond's 
right to an education. NU and Peter settled out of court without 
admitting liability. Says Redmond, "I don't think anybody understands 
the power that law has over college sports."

Here's where that power lies. Rape and sexual assault are harder to 
prove in criminal court than in civil court, so many victims find their 
only recourse in a civil case. Title IX suits offer an opportunity for 
the victim to be heard away from potentially biased local 
jurisdictions, plus access to the deeper pockets of universities rather 
than just to individual defendants.

Dr. Abrams, the sports psychologist, agrees that victims and lawyers 
don't know the ramifications of Title IX -- yet. "You could see 
hundreds, if not thousands, of silent victims come forward," he says.

On Aug. 30, 2001, the same day the Blazers opened a new football season 
by beating Montana State, 41-13, John Whitaker and Terry Dytrych, 
lawyers for the Benefields, filed a civil suit in state court against 
44 people, including members of UAB's administration and police, two 
coaches, 26 athletes -- and the mascot"

128 responses total.

Very sad story.  But who's to blame here?  Is it the parents for 
letting their fourteen year old daughter live in a college dorm?  Is it 
the girl's, after all she's a highly intelligent girl, and was capable 
of making her own decisions?  Was it the university's for putting the 
atheletes and regular students in the same dorm during the summer?  Are 
the parents entitled to $80 million from the state of Alabama? (this is 
a public school we're talking about)  What this story reminded me of, 
was the movie Traffic, the story depicted of Michael Douglas's 
character and his struggles with his priviledged, but drug addicted 
daughter.  This stuff does happen in real life.  I feel sorry for this 
girl...

What gets me was that she *consented*.  True, it's statuatory rape,  but
they're making it sound like they broke into her room each night.  I feel for
her, but more because she was so sheltered.  She never had a chance to learn
about life and consequences.

Also why were her report cards and bills sent to her?  When I lived in the
dorms, they required those things to be sent to my permanent address, i.e.
my parents.  This was especially important since I was a minor when I started
college.

Big universities are very bad at looking out for students.  The question of
whether they had a responsibility to do so in this case is difficult, but in
any case it seems that it never occurred to them that they did, and they
weren't set up to do anything about it.

It sure seems clear that this girl wasn't ready to be thrust into the
situation she found herself in.  It's a very sad story.  I hope she can
make a new life for herself somewhere else in the future.

Michaela, That is the stupidest statement I have heard in a LONG time.  She
consented.  BIG STUPID DEAL!  It doesn't make any difference.  It is illegal.
Even if she is intelligent, she is still a child.  Teh foot ball players were
probably adults.  THEY should have known better.

They should all be dropped from the program if she can prove they were
intimate with her.  They should all lose their scholarships.  The school
should be criminaly liable.  THEY courted her.  THEY wanted her.  THEY made
promises they never kept.  They failed to watch out for her.

If they couldn't be responsible for her, they should not have courted her.

Yeah.  This is wrong-- the team needs to face serious prosecution no 
matter what.

However, I can see academic whiz kids crashing and burning in their 
own right because they've had so much schooling and so little 
education in other life lessons.  It doesn't seem right to keep 
pushing and pushing a child academically and then give them absolutely 
no other skills about how to get along otherwise.

It's quite obvious that Brittany was moved from a small frying pan 
into a blazing inferno.  I take it there was little other options.  
Around where I live, she probably would have been able to take 
advantage of Running Start, which is basically a program that allows 
gifted students to take community college courses.  I knew someone who 
earned a diploma and an A.A. at the same time.  I also wonder why it 
was that the parents didn't wait just one year to see if other options 
would materialize.  This big university sounds like many-- and 
political commentary has been buzzing about it for a while-- where 
education is sacrificed in favor of keeping popular sports programs 
alive.  This university's priorities, and the priorities of Brittany's 
parents, did not match.

yes but she DID consent.  And she was called into the administration office
and asked about what was going on and lied about it.  You say she is a
child and not responsible for her actions.  Would you say that if she
murdered someone?  We regularly hold minors accountable for murder, say
they are responsible, but then we say they arent responsible for other
acts like having sex and doing drugs?

It also could be a commentary against home schooling.  Brittany was
home schooled for her early teen years.  When you are home schooled as
she was, do you risk becoming too sheltered and naive and thus become
more susceptible to these kinds of problems when you start going to
school with other kids again?  I mean going from home schooling to a
big campus has got to be a big adjustment!

resp:4 (bru slipped in).  Regarding that and resp:6 especially-- oh 
geez, richard, you know the law.  It's not inconceivable for a girl to 
lie when she's scared about what might happen.  It was described quite 
clearly that she was RAPED.  She was in a very vulnerable position 
because she had no peers on campus and these football players were the 
first ones who paid a lot of attention to her.  Now, the players were 
all of legal age, and our court system holds them legal responsible 
for their actions.  Brittany was a minor-- under age 16, at that.  She 
couldn't consent under any law, including that of the state of 
Michigan.

Also-- consider the circumstances.  This isn't a case of two kids in 
high school, who are close to the same age, who are boyfriend and 
girlfriend; this is a case of a whiz kid at a big university who was 
socially isolated and was pressured into sex, drugs, and drinking.  
The rumors weren't word of mouth alone-- they were published in a 
student newspaper.  A legal lawsuit is not at ALL inappropriate.

This will not just affect Brittany, nor even just her family.  Future 
relationships will be tainted by this mess.  How do I know?  I've 
dated many women who were sexually abused in some way, and even 
married one.  None of them even APPROACHED this intensity and scope.  
This makes my blood boil.

resp:7  It does not have to be that way-- I've seen examples of home 
schooling that were not great-- one person I dated did home schooling, 
graduated early, and after a year of work internship, went right to 
getting married and having a kid.  She snapped right back to grab her 
supposedly lost adolescence at 22.

On the other hand, I had friends who were home schooled and then later 
allowed to participate in many extracurricular activities to round out 
their education.  One participated very heavily in the student radio 
station.

This response has been erased.

(the following is an article on Brittany written for the UAB 
(University of Alabama at Birmingham) school paper:

"Teens new to UAB, hold promise for future


Allison Barnes
Kaleidoscope Senior Staff


What would it be like to walk the paths of a college campus at age 15 
or 16? Just ask Brittany Benefield or Najaf Shah about their 
experience. As two of the youngest students at UAB this year, Benefield 
and Shah are making the most of college life. Don’t let youthfulness 
fool you, because as Benefield, 15, tells it, “age is just a 
number.” “My age difference has been a factor to some people,” she 
says, “but I wish they would just let it go. As long as you’re mature 
enough, age doesn’t matter.” Shah, 16, agrees, his difference in age 
has not made much difference at all. “I don’t feel unique among other 
students,” he said. “Things seemed just a bit odd at first, but I have 
gotten used to college life.” Benefield was home-schooled from the 
eighth to 12th grade, and the native Childersburg resident says college 
was a big change. “My classes were always small when I went to 
conventional school.” Benefield’s first class at UAB was a psychology 
lecture period, known for its attendance of over 100 students. “There 
were so many people in there,” she says, “and I was like
‘Wow’.” 

Benefield and Shah have both found time in their not-so-typical 
schedules to carry on with the activities they love. For Shah, computer 
programming and networking is a daily past time. “I
spend almost all of my free time working with computers.” Benefield 
hangs out with her friends in her for leisure. “I watch and play lots 
of sports, and I love romance novels.” Academically, Shah intends to 
graduate in a computer science related field, and then go on to receive 
a Ph.D. So far, he’s been steadily taking advice and encouragement from 
his family and friends. “Personally, I just hope that my college 
experience will mold me into a better person.” 

Benefield admits that her best advice came from a friend in 
Louisiana. “[My friend] told me to at least buy the book for a class, 
attempt to study for the class, and pray a lot.” Benefield originally 
planned to study communications, but changed her major to criminal 
justice. She hopes to attend law school after graduating UAB. "


You can get a sense of what happened.  She was a prodigy and her age 
was always an issue and she desperately didnt want it to be so.  The 
socializing with the football team, and the sex and the drugs were her 
trying to fit in, trying to negate the age issue.  

I think her parents pushed her too fast.  Tell me why, as the first 
article said, it was so important that Brittany be a lawyer by the time 
she was 21?  I dont think the parents, who were home schooling her, 
should have pushed her through her "high school" grades that fast.   

I imagine it's a tougher call than you think.  It seems to me that most people
who quit school, or who stick with it and hate it all the way through, do it
out of boredom.  If I were in her parents' situation, I'd be just as nervous
about holding my daugher back until she got bored and fed up.  I'd have to
fight against overdoing it in the same way that her parents did.  

i really don't think she or anyone else should be blamed for her naivety. the
assholes who took advantage of her should be blamed. end of story. 

I agree, actually.. the argument about home schooling is just a side 
issue.

You can point the finger everywhere - but it comes back mostly to the football
players.  But I can assure you - it would be a cold day in hell before I'd
let my 14-15 year old go live away from me in a dorm.

Oh, yeah.  Sure.  It happened because she's a child.  Because, you know, when
you turn 18, things like that magically don't happen anymore.  Because you
go down to the Bureau of Adulthood and pick up your Common Sense Ration.  

Nobody got raped here. 

You get a common sense ration????  Damn!  I hope they still have mine.

re #2 and #6:  Do you truly think that a 15 yr old girl who has never 
drank before could "consent" to anything after drinking a six-pack?  
I'm almost 25 and rarely drink and I don't think I could "consent" 
after that much to drink.  The athletes obviously acted as predators 
by bringing beer and drugs to her, for the purpose of impairing her 
judgment so that they could take advantage of her.

re #5 and #7:  This crash and burn scenario happens to many 18 yr olds 
as well.  There are generally 3 types of college freshmen.  

Type A - Excited to be out from under mom and dad's rules, parties too 
much, studies too little, crashes and burns in the first semester.

Type B - Driven and ready to conquer college. Studies all day and all 
night, and neglects personal life.  This person either burns out from 
too much studying at the end of the first semester or after good grades 
in the first semester they say "that wasn't too hard" and they turn to 
a Type A second semester.

Type C - Excited to be at college.  Looking to learn but have fun.  
Tries to balance class work and fun (doesn't always keep them in 
balance but tries). Next year this is the person we call Sophomore.

Re #17: From my observations, I've concluded they've had a shortage of
Common Sense Rations for years now.

I think it's a challenge for colleges and universities to provide a
supportive environment for students while still giving them enough room to
explore their newfound freedom.  I think some colleges do it better than
others, and I'll bet that in general smaller schools are more supportive
than larger ones.

I hate to say it, but it sounds like this girl might have done better at a
small religious school, or maybe an all-women's school.

"It wasn't my fault I was driving drunk, officer.  I was unable to exercise
good judgement on whether or not I should drive, because I was drunk."

Poop.  One is responsible for one's actions.  She drank the beer voluntarily; 
she's responsible for what she does under its influence.  

Maybe.  But she hardly had the tools to deal with the presentation of it. 
Her parents didn't want her living with a roommate who miggt have had beer
in the fridge.  Why?  You either trust her or you don't.  I'm with Mark -
smaller, all-girls' school.

Well, Greg, certainly you wouldn't argue that a 5-year old is completely
responsible for his actions, right?  So it's a question of where you draw
the line.

#8> You say there is no law under which Brittany could have consented. That's
not true. She was 15 at the time. These are states that have ages of consent
15 or lower:
Colorado: 15 if partner is under 25; 17 otherwise
Iowa: 14 if partner is less than 5 years older; 16 otherwise
Missouri: 14 if partner is less than 21; 17 otherwise
 
If nothing else, the acts would have been legal in Colorado (certainly all
of the football players were under 25, although some may have been over 20).
 
This is legally moot, since the incidents didn't occur in any of these three
states, but it's not philosophically moot -- it's been pointed out repeatedly
that having an array of "age of consent" laws, some of which have conditionals
like those listed above (Michigan doesn't have a conditional law, but it does
have separate classes of rape based on whether the younger partner is under
13 or between 13 and 15), sends a confusing signal, and also communicates
that, for some reason, Colorado teenagers are somehow more mature than, say,
Wisconsin teens (who can't have sex, under any circumstances, until they're
18).
 
Globally, the minimum age of consent among countries with known laws is 12.
Apparently Chilean teens are even more mature than Colorado teens.
 
(Source: www.ageofconsent.com)

[Amend: The sexual acts would have been legal in Colorado. The pot and acid
are illegal everywhere, stupidly enough.]

Wouldn't I?  Hmm...  I might, depending on what kind of mood I was in.  Thing
is, I dislike the concept of "responsibility" for one's actions.  I feel it's 
unhelpful, even harmful, to the discussion of real-world problems and their
solutions.  It's one of those words that different people use to mean different
 things, without noticing, and get all confused.  I prefer to use it in such a
way that "Each person is responsible for all of his or her actions" is not just
true, but tautological; one's actions are defined as precisely the things one
is responsible for.  Other people use it as kind of a shorthand for the
question of, basically, who should we punish when something goes wrong.  It
boils down to the fact that there are two questions, "what happened", and "what
should we do about it".  
  Suppose five year old Johnny, say, gets ahold of a beer, chugs it 
down (you go, kid! :) and knocks over a table lamp.  What does it mean to 
ask me whether or not he's responsible for knocking over the lamp?  Let's
ask the two questions.  What happened? Here's the cast of characters:  
  Johnny, five years old, is running around the house on a hot summer day, 
not a care in the world.  He runs across a shiny open can on the table.  The 
only shiny cans that shape he's ever seen have been soda, which he knows
he's not allowed to have but wants anyway.  He grabs it, hides in his
bedroom and drinks it down.  Then he feels sick and wanders in search
of his parents, walking unsteadily enough to break a nice lamp.  
  Nicole, age 15, is Johnny's older sister.  She's supposed to be
watching Johnny, but got distracted by a phone call from her best
friend Ruth.  She was chatting happily and completely forgot about
Johnny, who then slipped off to his little adventure.  The first she 
knows of it is the sound of the lamp crashing down.  
  Uncle Ted, age 45, is over to watch the game, and sets his fresh
beer down on the table to go to the garage and look at the new mower
during halftime.  
  Joe is Johnny's father, who invited his brother Ted over for the
game and gave him the beer.  He saw Ted put it down on the table and
did nothing about it.  He didn't really have any idea where Johnny was
or what he was doing, because the game was tied.  
  Sue is Johnny's mother, who put Nicole in charge of Johnny while she
went to the store for munchies during halftime.  She knew Nicole has a
habit of forgetting about Johnny if she gets distracted, but she
figured it was just a few minutes.  
  
  Next, what should we (being, say, Johnny's parents) do about it?
There are a number of behavior modifications we might like to effect
to prevent a reoccurrance.  We might give Johnny a lecture about not
drinking things without asking permission.  We might ground Nicole for
not watching Johnny.  We might mention to Ted that he should keep an
eye on his beer when Johnny's around.  We might resolve to pay a
little more attention ourselves to what's going on around the house.

It doesn't completely make sense to say that Johnny is "responsible"
for breaking the lamp, since every one of our cast of characters
contributed to the incident somehow.  Each person had an opportunity
to act in such a way as to prevent the lamp breaking, but neglected to do
so.  But it also doesn't make sense to say that Johnny is "not
responsible"; he clearly misbehaved and as a result, the lamp was
broken.  It's really rather a waste of time to try to figure out who
was responsible for the lamp breaking.  It's much more productive and
sane to ask what happened and what to do about it.  

The same kind of reasoning applies to this girl.  It makes just as
little sense, to me, to claim that the first football player raped her
as it does to say that Nicole broke the lamp.  

Re #24: Except that in many states, someone who is drunk cannot legally give
consent.  I'm not sure if the states you mention have laws like that on the
books, but I think Michigan does.

So if you get me drunk enough to be confused and totally wasted, I can indeed
consent to sex, and it'll be okay? What about using roofies? The point is that
this girl was definitely drunk the first time, and that having sex with a
drunken person who can't legitimately consent or fight in a coherent way is
rape. Whether or not the rest of the team used the same stratagem, each of
them is guilty of statutory rape, and perhaps actual rape (depending on if
this girl was made drunk/stoned every time).

And use a little common sense, here, too. If you are socially backward, and
have been sheltered all your life, you are not going to have the skills to
deal with someone who's paying attention to you in order to use you. Yeah,
it's easy to say she should have known better, or her parents should have
known better, but her parents did try to keep her from some of the worse
consequences of going to such a big school -- me, I would have made sure she
was at a small school, like Adrian (which is where I went when I was sixteen),
which at the time had chaperones, strict sex-segregated dorms, and the
lock-down/bed-check thang happening (okay, not the bed-check, but you had to
sign out of your dorm after dark, and you had to sign back in by eleven). I
did my best by Rhiannon (who is slightly socially retarded) by making sure
that she went to a small high school and college. 

Why did his mother put her teenage daughter in charge when Dad was home? It
sounds like there's some marital counseling in the works.
 
IF the football player came over with a six pack of beer, with the belief that
she wouldn't have sex with him without beer, and with the belief that because
of her age and personality she probably hadn't had beer, and with the desire
to have sex with her, and without having any beer himself, then I'd actually
agree that he raped her. If he came over with a sex pack of beer, with the
belief that it might be fun to have some booze, and they both had three cans,
and they both had appranetly consensual sex, then I wouldn't say he was
morally guilty of rape, although the state laws have a different opinion about
his legal acts.
 
Statuatory rape depends heavily on intent, and intent is very hard to
demonstrate. Would she have been convinced to have sex with him, independent
of their size differential and the booze? Was she having sex with him because
she was afraid of injury if she said no, or was she having sex with him
because she was genuinely interested in "checking it out"? Since she'd lied
repeatedly about having sex at all, is she now lying that the first incidents
involved booze, or involved presumably adult football players? Did he come
over with the intent of coercing her into sex, or did he genuinely need help
on his homework, and the sex just happened? (Obviously, after the first
incident, the football players *did* come over with the specific intent to
get sex.)
 
Too many questions to conclude anything from the information given. Maybe the
football players are all perverted creeps who should be kicked out of
university forever and always. Perhaps they're just horny and were provided
with an easy lay, something which most healthy teenaged boys would go for.
I"m not really comfortable saying one way or the other, and am disappointed
with the judge-and-jury attitude of some of the posters here.

#26> The drug issue is independent of her age (except inasmuch as it makes
providing the alcohol illegal, but most of the football players were probably
underage, too). The answer to the question, "Was she too young to have sex
anywhere in the United States?" is clearly, "No." That was my point.
 
#27, first para> So I should never go to a bar and try to pick up a one-night
stand, because if she's had a cocktail, I'm a rapist? Or I should never have
sex with my wife after we've had a few drinks, because even though we're
regular sexual partners, I could be raping her *this time*? You might think
I'm being ludicrous in these examples, but they HAVE appeared in the courts
as rape cases. I can't believe any 14 year old is so sheltered that they don't
know at least the general effects of alcohol, and if she REALLY felt so
violated afterwards that it was psychological rape, why did she keep doing
it? (Oh yeah, that's typical of rape victims... that's also typical of sluts.
There's no way to conclude from the data provided which one she really is.)

Some of you are arguing your cases with no sense of the subtleties of 
reality here.

For example, homeschooling is not bad, but unless measures are taken to 
properly socialize a child, she's going to be at a serious disadvantage 
when the time finally comes that she has to rely on herself against 
adverse circumstances.

For example, universities are in constant flux regarding the extent of 
their roles and responsibilities toward their students, and there is a 
delicate balance between between a nurturing and supportive enviroment 
and a restrictive and controlling one.  Not every university has settled 
on the same balance point, and certainly not every one gets it right.

For example, maturation is a process of learning how to make decisions 
and bear their consequences, and the traditional role of parents is to 
make those decisions, educate children as to why certain decisions were 
made, and then enter a process of allowing the child to make certain 
decisions so the child can truly understand what all the words means, and 
thus learn to make decisions for herself.  This having failed to happenin 
this case does not excuse the university from all responsibility, but the 
university certainly does not have the resources to check out the entire 
extent of socialization of every student in order to assure that each one 
is adequately prepared to live away from their parents.

Indeed. From my own experience, I would be more inclined to think that a
fifteen-year-old child prodigy is more likely, not less likely, to be able
to process the intricacies of college life than an eighteen-year-old
barely-got-into-college sort. And would nearly as much hoopla be made of an
eighteen-year-old in a similar position as this fifteen-year-old? I know it
wouldn't, because this sort of drug-and-sex decline happens frequently to
young coeds. If the fifteen-year-old was maturationally equivalent to a
just-barely-got-into-college eighteen-year-old (and I don't know if she was
or not), why is this situation more tragic than the same fate befalling the
eighteen-year-old, and why should the university take more care of their
charge? The only reason I can imagine is the arbitrary "age of consent" (not
just for sex, but for guardianship) that we mandate, when there are fourteen
year olds who could indeed take care of themselves, and twenty-four year olds
who can't.

my opinion is that the first time she had sex with the guy, it may not have
been rape. but his treating her like a sex object and pimping her off to other
football players pushed the situation into something very wrong and
manipulative. these were older, stronger men with somewhat of a position of
power. some here are sitting here saying no matter what she is responsible
for her actions. sure she is, and i'm sure she's learned her lesson the hard
way. but those same people don't seem to be saying that the football players
are responsible for taking advantage of her. this is not just an issue of
rape, but of misogyny and respect for women on the part of the men.

men shouldn't respect women because of fear of going to jail, but because it's
the right thing to do. laws cannot teach people to behave ethically.

I am in awe of the promises allegedly made by the university recruiters to
the parents.  If the UAB made claims to act in place of parents for Ms
Benefield and failed to follow through, the negligence appears nearly willful.
Regarding Mark's comments [#3], the parents probably know of the hazards for
a minor on campus and would never have enrolled their daughter with out the
promises of extraordinary supervision.

Re #28: "Statuatory rape depends heavily on intent, and intent is very
hard to demonstrate."  

I believe that statutory rape is a strict liability law:  Intent to
have sexual relations with a person younger than the age of consent is
unnecesary for prosecution.

Nonetheless, I wonder what the age of consent in Alabama is?

33> Fair enough. Legal rape, I won't speak to. I meant that, ethically, unless
a rape involves forcing a person physically to have sex, it depends heavily
on the intent of the people involved, in my opinion. As in my example, there's
a sizable moral difference between having sex with someone who happens to be
drunk and getting someone drunk so they'll have sex with you. However, as far
as the law goes, they may well be the same thing.
 
32> Sure, inasmuch as the football player in question went and told his
buddies, "Hey, wanna get laid? Go to Brittany and ask her for homework help.
Bring booze. She's a great fuck.", he's a pig and a poor example of a human
being. And I think it's without dispute that that's exactly what he did,
regardless of whether he initially got her drunk in order to get laid.

Alabama Code (1975)
Section 13A-6-61

Rape in the first degree.

(a) a person commits the crime of rape in the first degree if 

(3) He or she, being 16 years or older, engages in sexual intercourse with
a member of the opposite sex who is less than 12 years old.
---

This is what I found and it seems somewhat dated, for it doesn't offer
protection from same sex offenses.  Well, maybe there's an amendment or case
precident later.

Re way back there:  Bru - I SAID I KNEW IT WAS ILLEGAL.  Read my posts before
you go insane...please.  :)  I also said I felt bad for her.  My *problem*
is that she made these choices on her own, continued to refuse help, ran away
from home, and would not admit that she was in NO WAY prepared to deal with
the real world, mostly because of her parents, who would love to blame the
school since the school didn't step in and act as parents.  Schools are not
parental units, especially when they are universities.

Wow...run-on sentence.  Oh well.

Someone back there cited "boredom in school" as a reason to advance 
kids quicker through the school system.  Move a smart kid into a higher 
grade, and then the kid is bored with the work at the next level, and 
also more removed from his social life.  The older kids still aren't as 
smart as the smart kid.  Also, the school work still isn't challenging, 
except it might be more challenging for him to relate to it, since it's 
for older kids.

I think a lot of people who were smarter than their classmates, but not 
really considered as candidates for skipping grades, fantasize about 
how great it would have been to be able to do more advanced work 
earlier.   I don't think it's a good idea.  I'm very much set against 
my kid skipping any grades.  So, I believe and hope, is his mother, who 
did skip a grade in elementary school.

I skipped a grade, and it didn't bother me a bit.  The only time it bothered
me was when everyone else had their drivers license before me.  ;-)

They wanted to skip me a grade and my parents vitoed it.  That was about the
time I began to get bored with school.  I was in a mixed fourth/fifth grade
during my fourth grade year.  I was at the head of the class, the whole class.
It was suggested that I was ready for sixth grade, socially as well as
academically.  My father had a friend that skipped a grade and couldn't handle
it and didn't want me to face that.  I didn't find out about it until much
later.  I was hurt that he felt I couldn't handle it and didn't respect me
(I felt at the time) to ask how I felt about it.

I was totally bored with fifth grade and for much of school after that.  I
lived in the library both at school and the local public library chasing my
own interests which kept me ahead of most of my classmates.  That and teachers
who wouldn't answer questions from the textbooks "until the rest of the class
got there" killed my respect for the public school system.

I tried college twice and got the same sort of garbage and dropped out since I

couldn't bear to pay for that kind of treatment.  Fortunately which only a
couple of exceptions I haven't faced it at WCC.  The instructors have gone
out of their way to answer questions, if not in class than after class.  I
still get very frustrated with students that hold the class back because they
feel that they don't have to have the pre-reqs needed for that class and keep
insisting that they be taught them now.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss