I was surfing the net today and I ran across this story on the CBS news site, it reads:

"(CBS)  Classes were back in session at Richmond High School in San Francisco's East Bay Tuesday, with counselors available for students to talk about Saturday night's horrific crime - the gang rape on campus of a 15-year-old student who had just left the homecoming dance. The victim was airlifted to a local hospital after being beaten, robbed and raped.

A 19-year-old former student and a 15-year-old current student have been arrested, but more arrests are expected soon, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes.

"Multiple offenders, multiple people raping over prolonged period," said Lt. Mark Gagan with the Richmond police.

What makes this crime so shocking is that police say at least 20 people were involved in the rape or stood and watched the crime without going for help.

"These are witnesses that are encouraging and allowing behavior to continue," Gagan said.

For those who watched and did nothing, it may be morally reprehensible, but it's not illegal.

"Although this is a very difficult crime to hear about, the fact is California law does not impose an affirmative obligation on anyone to do anything when you are watching a crime," said Trent Copeland, a legal analyst.

Richmond High School has a 69 percent truancy rate and is in a school district that had 19 student murders last year. Fights at Richmond have been posted on YouTube, and a van was set on fire on the football field's new artificial turf. An investigation by CBS station KPIX-TV last year found only a handful of the 16 security cameras in the school were working.

On Friday, there were four Richmond police officers on duty at the dance, but the security guards patrolling the grounds were released at 9 p.m., a half-hour before the victim left the dance.

"Dance was successful event and safe for the students that were there," said Marin Trujillo, the West Contra Costa Unified School District spokesman. "This dance itself was a successful event."

Police are now searching for cell phone video that onlookers may have recorded. Wednesday, it's expected that the suspects will be in court for arraignment. "

When I first read this story, somehow I felt some sort of bizarre responsibility.  Not like I could have done anything to help but I am aware that I am a part of the society that somehow let these kids get so desensitized to violence and it's repercussions. 

I had a myriad of questions, such as where was security??  It is apparent from the article that this school has a history of violent crimes committed by students.  Oddly enough, I just read a theory in my psych class that which discusses the "diffusion of responsibility".  Under the diffusion theory, people are less inclined to help a victim in distress because there is the belief that since there are so many witnesses, no one single person bears the personal responsibility to go for help.  I don't completely understand the thought process behind that but even more baffling to me is not only did none of the students feel the responsibility to call for help but instead, they felt the need to join in the assault.

This girl was gang raped for about 2.5 hours with no help....how does that happen?  What messages are we as adults sending these kids that such behaviors and violations are acceptable?  I am well aware that these kids are old enough to take responsibility for their behavior but at what point did group think and mob mentality kick in?  Even more disturbing to me is what is the self esteem level of a young man who is willing to be the 20th person to rape a woman.  I have heard of people running trains on young women in college situations and even then, I have to wonder about the person who agrees to enter the body of a woman after many others.  With these attacks, condoms are seldom, if ever used........what the hell are people thinking??  Not saying that this would have been okay if condoms had been used and it was never made clear in the article if they were or not but from my experience with working with young victims of sexual assault, they usually are not.

This crime is heinous at best and I think that all involved should be charged as adults and held accountable for their behavior.  I do, however, remember at our school dances when I was growing up that we had security that patrolled outside and if kids were loitering they either had to leave or go back inside the dance. 

What say you, have we created a society that has minimized the consequences of such behavior or is this just a tragic incident of negative peer pressure at it's finest.  All I know is, if this had been MY child, the people who committed this assault could only pray that the police got to them before I did.  I would not mind pleading nolo contendere   (no contest) to premeditated murder.  I know it sounds extreme and the law is here to handle things like this but I know in my mind, the law would not be moving fast enough and vigilante justice would be much faster and save a lot of tax payer money.  This is inexcusable and there is enough blame to go around, for sure.  I hope the best for this young lady, she has a lot of healing to do, bless her.

Source Story On CBS