Public Response
how the town responded
The Split
Steubenville is a lower-middle class city that was quickly declining around 2012, with football as one of the few things going right for many sports-loving citizens. When two of the team's star players were charged with rape after the August 12, 2012 assault, many felt forced to choose a side in the matter. Unfortunately, many locals chose to side with the boys, especially due to the influence of their coaches and mentors.
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"The rape was just an excuse, I think. What else are you going to tell your parents when you come home drunk like that and after a night like that? She had to make up something. Now people are trying to blow up our football program because of it." -- Hubbard, 27, coach at Steubenville High School.
These coaches spoke as character witnesses at the court hearing for both Mays and Richmond. Since they were such public and popular figures in the community, many believed them. However, those outside Steubenville could see through this ploy easily, and were upset that this serious of a crime was getting swept under the rug and manipulated.
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“Just Coach Reno saying he would testify for those boys, saying he was so proud of them, that speaks volumes. All those football players are put on a pedestal over there, and it’s such a status symbol to play for Big Red, the culture is so different over there. I do feel like they’ve had preferential treatment, and it’s unreal, almost like we’re part of a TV show. It’s like a bad ‘CSI’ episode. What those boys did was disgusting, disgusting, and for people to stand up for them, that’s disgusting, too.” -- Jane Doe's mother.
This split led to the spread of wildly varying information, and created a large divide between the truth and the account that was created by those who wanted to protect the community and its reputation.
Jane Doe
Jane Doe (the alias used in the court hearing to protect the raped woman’s identity) was from West Virginia, and lived across the river from Steubenville. She was active on social media, and many saw her posts of confidence as "slutty", with Richmond's lawyer citing his posts as "a gift... those online posts demonstrated she was sexually active and showed that she was clearly engaged in at-risk behavior," (New York Times interview of Walter Madison, Richmond's lawyer).
In court her mother was asked to come up to the stand. She spoke about her daughter's mental health, citing she didn't want to go to school. She was cast out by her friends, and was not trusted in the community anymore. Doe didn't sleep much after the assault, and her mother heard her cry every night for hours.
This woman was hurt, and then further beat down and ridiculed by a community she thought she could trust and depend on. Her identity has never been revealed, but all we can do is hope she has found peace and safety in her life. To learn more about how to support survivors you can visit the NSVRC tab under Resources, or visit NSVRC's website for more in-depth information.
Alex Goddard and Steubenville's Reaction
Goddard began to intently blog about the assault. This lead to increased national awareness of the actions of Mays and Richmond, along with publicity of how the other players on their team, coaches, and public figures in Steubenville openly gaslighted Jane Doe and denied an assault occurred. Many of the comments made by Steubenville locals were posted to national news outlets, leading to national knowledge of the poor response to the assault by the community.
Many players and coaches in Steubenville openly attacked Goddard on social media and other platforms, with one player even filing for defamation of character. Goddard continued to blog anything and everything that could be found on the assault, and became an integral source for the documentary Roll Red Roll, which covers the assault, Steubenville's poor response, and public revolt for justice.
The case and its digital evidence have been spread to all corners of the internet by Goddard and Anonymous, a popular Twitter account known for publishing seemingly impossible-to-uncover information. Through these efforts, the case went "viral." The documentary Roll Red Roll won six awards and was nominated for two others. Ironically enough, one of the two nominations that the film did not win was from the Cleveland International Film Festival in Cleveland, Ohio.