What makes my stomach turn first is reading about one horrible thing: Virginia coach Travis Turner has been issued ten warrants for child-related offenses, and rather than everyone getting angry at him, the town began finger-pointing at teenage cheerleaders for their clothes. This kind of blaming I have seen before in my own school, so this reading seemed too familiar.
A woman, Rozina Edwards Branham, stayed quiet for about a week, but then she decided to speak out loudly on Facebook. She said she could not cope anymore because every time she opened the local comment section, it was the girls getting blamed, while the grown men just ran away. Turner left his wife and kids and just vanished. If he were really innocent, I could not see him escaping like that. In my school, when somebody was accused of something small, they never disappeared; they stayed back and fought and tried to prove everybody else wrong.
Some of Rozina’s actual comments-people were supporting Turner. Some said things like innocent until proven guilty, he made the football team strong this year, then they blamed the cheerleaders, saying the girls dress wrong or their skirts are too short. I have also heard some statements in real life. Once, in my school, a teacher mocked a girl for her dress, and even then, some people said that it was her clothes that were the problem. It always seems unfair, like adults expect children to control their own actions while the grown-up gets given excuses.
One comment even went as far as to say that cheer uniforms attract men. Reading that was surreal, considering those uniforms had looked almost the same for years. The problem is not the clothes; the problem is the person who chooses to look at a kid that way. Rozina said the same thing. She said Turner is a grown man with over forty years, and he knows what is wrong from what is right. She asked why no one was standing up for the girl or girls that he hurt. I liked that she said this because in stories like this, the victims usually get lost.
Rozina also posed a simple question: if someone accused you of something this serious, and you were truly innocent, would you leave your whole family and hide? She said she would go marching straight to the police, handing over every device and password to clear her name. This all seemed reasonable to me. If anyone was innocent, that would be the path to pursue.
What made it worse is that the town seemed more concerned about skirt length than the real kids who were actually hurt. These same teens will have to go back to school and see the same people blaming them. I can only imagine how heavy that must be, since even tiny gossip in school makes one uncomfortable for weeks. This huge one would be way huge in an extra way.
In the end, Rozina said the things that most of us were thinking: Stop blaming the kids. Stop blaming the uniforms. The real responsibility lies with the adult who chose to do wrong. She said the reason kids don’t speak out is because of comments like that.
More charges may come, and Turner is still at large, according to the police. Rozina said his being alive just gives him more reason to turn himself in and take whatever consequences arise for what he did. I agree with her. This whole thing demonstrates how severely people fail to understand matters such as this and how expediently they cast the blame on the wrong person. You may also be interested in: Aberdeen Football Coach Upset After Player Transfers To Montesano While His Mom Fights Cancer
