Raped in Arizona? Sorry About Your Luck!

I was minding my own business this afternoon, scrolling through work emails and handling my kids’ ridiculous lunch requests as quickly as I could (“No, Popsicles are not fruit, therefore they are not lunch”), when I got a text message from my brother. He asked if I had heard about the teacher who was raped after proctoring a GED exam in an Arizona prison. In between “finish all that pasta!” and 36 water refills, I managed to read the article.

 

My first response was awwww hayle naw.

My second was vomit.

My third was fury.

 

It is with that fury I write this, #sorrynotsorry for any emotional typos.

 

You can read the full story here, but this is a break-down of events:

 

On January 20, 2014, a female teacher, who was employed by the Arizona Department of Corrections, planned to give seven inmates a GED exam. Normally, tutoring and exams take place in a guarded and monitored visitation area, but something else was going on that day, so this teacher had to give the exam in another room, one that wasn’t guarded or monitored. But don’t worry! The correction officials gave her a handy-dandy radio and were like, “Lady, just give us a holler if you need anything!”

 

Oh, let me back up. These inmates? ALL SEX OFFENDERS.

 

Now where were we? Ahhh, yes. One woman, seven sex offenders, one closed-off, unguarded, non-monitored room.

 

After the exam, six of the seven men left and escorted themselves back to their cells (really stellar operation you’re running there, ADOC), but one man stuck around so he could stab his teacher in the head with a pen, smash her face off the ground, rip off her clothing, and brutally rape her.

Of course the woman yelled for help during the rape, but no one heard her. I imagine those cement rooms hold noise fairly well? Afterward, the rapist kindly allowed the teacher to call for help on the fancy radio she was instructed to use in case of an emergency, but wouldn’t ya know–that radio didn’t work! In fact, it was tuned to a channel that the correction officials don’t even use. WINNING, ARIZONA!

I guess the rapist allowed the teacher to use her cell phone to call for help because she was eventually freed from her predator, but the damage had been done.

 

 

Physically.

Emotionally.

Spiritually.

 

But hey–she deserved it.

She knows full-well that working in a prison is dangerous, and could garner consequences like, oh I don’t know, RAPE. I bet she wore a really comfortable skirt and washed her hair that day, too. Maybe she threw on a pretty necklace. Basically, she was begging to be raped. Mascara and heels are the equivalent of a lap dance these days, and ladies, we really should know better.

If you don’t want to be a victim, don’t put yourself in a position to be victimized by teaching. Helping. Bettering your community. Slut.

Arizona’s own Attorney General agrees. In fact, he is hoping to dismiss the lawsuit that the teacher filed after being viciously attacked.

Here’s why the ol’ AG doesn’t think she has a viable lawsuit: she should have anticipated the danger.

Seriously.

She should have consulted her crystal ball and known ahead of time that the exam would be moved from the normal, well-guarded room to a hole in the wall. She certainly should have anticipated not even one prison official would do a courtesy check to see if the sequestered teacher and her six sex offender students were okay. They were, after all, only in seclusion together for ninety minutes, hardly enough time to make a cup of coffee…

And here’s the kicker: one of the inmates had, less than a year before this rape, broken into a woman’s home in broad daylight, and attacked and raped her in front of her toddler. He was sentenced to almost 30 years as a result.

I’ll let you guess which inmate that was.

Yes, the Attorney General is right: this teacher should have known instinctively that the prison officials and guards were going to consciously place her in harm’s way, which is exactly what they did when they allowed her to be isolated with violent criminals. Criminals who target women. Criminals who rape women.

It is all her fault.

To be fair (because forcing a woman to the ground and savagely violating her reeks of fairness), we need to look at both sides of this story. As the brilliant assistant Attorney General, who is in cahoots to have this case dismissed, has said:

 

(The teacher) wants to create an artificial impression that the ADOC officers knew she was in danger but she did not know. It makes no sense. Of course, if (the teacher) did appreciate the danger of her situation, as an employee, she could have done something about it.

 

If what the aforementioned asshat is asserting is, in fact, true, and the guards didn’t realize the teacher was in danger, then all I have to say is what. the. fuuuuuuck. How do prison guards and correction officers not know about their inmates’ backgrounds? Violent pasts? I mean, I would assume that part of their job is to, like, know stuff, but maybe I’ve just watched The Green Mile too many times.

 

I’m no lawyer, I don’t work among criminals–unless you count the time I spent in the Wall Street District of New York City a few weeks ago–and I don’t know what it’s like being in prison. But I am a person with at least three brain cells which means I understand rape is never a choice. I only pray that Judge Bolton gives the Arizona Attorney General what he deserves: a proverbial slap across the face for trying to have this case dismissed and for further demeaning this poor woman. May everyone in Arizona not be as stupid as this man. Amen.