Brett Kavanaugh vs. Christine Blasey Ford
A recent political scandal has embroiled President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanagh and the accusations of sexual assault from Christine Blasey Ford.
The incident occured at a small party the summer before Ford’s junior year. Kavanaugh was attending Georgetown Preparatory School at the time. At one point, she walked away to go to the bathroom and went up a small flight of stairs, at which point she was pushed into a bedroom. The door was locked behind her. Brett Kavanaugh got on top of her on the bed, pushed her down on the bed on her back, began groping at her, trying to take off her clothes.
There was also a witness in the room, a friend of Kavanaugh, named Mark Judge. Even though the incident happened more than 30 years ago and Ford is happily married, the event is imprinted in her mind forever.
There is record of Ford’s couples therapy sessions that happened before Kavanaugh’s nomination in which she described an attack during her high school years, although she did not name Kavanaugh explicitly. Ford did not tell anyone, including her husband, about the incident until 2012. Both Kavanaugh and Mark Judge deny the assault ever happened.
In 1991, a woman named Anita Hill accused the then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, but Thomas went on to be confirmed. “Ford’s accusation is coming to light in a different era. Now, with 23 women in the Senate, including four on the judiciary committee, and the backdrop of the #MeToo movement, Kavanaugh’s future as a Supreme Court justice is in uncharted territory,” reported NPR.
It is hard to say what is truth and what is not. I think the question that we as future voters and citizens need to ask is if we want a person accused of sexual assault to be running our judicial branch? As it is, our justice system already has evidence of corruption through street cops at the bottom, all the way up to the entrenched Supreme Court judge at the top wielding absolute power.
People of different races, genders, sexual orientations, etc. are continuously treated unfairly in the justice system. For example, Alton Sterling was fatally shot by two Louisiana cops who are not facing any criminal charges for killing a man in cold blood. Another is the lawsuit started by four women who work at Nike arguing that the Equal Pay Act is being violated by engaging in gender pay discrimination and ignoring rampant sexual harassment.
This story is very alarming because it surrounds the huge problem of sexual assault in high school. To me, it is understandable why Ford didn’t come forward until now. Victims of sexual assault are less likely to say who the perpetrator was because of the overwhelming stigma in our society to blame the victim. It raises some question of credibility as to why she waited so long and we don’t know if she is telling the truth, but it makes sense because the power that Kavanaugh holds in the government.
I think it is imperative to understand how brave she is being by coming forward, and not only her, but so many other women like her who chose to take a stand against powerful, white men who think they can do whatever they want without consequences. She, along with many other women, are starting a revolution of change for the rights of women and the rights of people in general. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Kat Bowes is a senior at Rocky Mountain High School and loves sports. She works with children at Raintree Athletic Center and wants to pursue social work...
Conner Culhane • Oct 2, 2018 at 8:15 am
In this article, you say “I think the question that we as future voters and citizens need to ask is if we want a person accused of sexual assault to be running our judicial branch?” I think this is not the question that needs to be asked and that if this is the thinking from the American populous that surrounds these allegations that a very dangerous precedent will be set.
Both parties have sworn their side regarding this allegation under penalty of perjury. I do not know who is telling the truth and neither do you and, assuming that the FBI investigation comes up with no corroborative evidence, we may never know the truth.
This is why it is critical that the burden of proof be placed solely on the accuser, and presumption of innocence granted to the accused. The question that voters should be asking themselves is, “are uncorroborated allegations of sexual misconduct enough to ruin a career?”
Though I do appreciate you saying “It is hard to say what is truth and what is not,” as that is undoubtedly the case at the moment, I wish that the rest of the article was characterized by the same restraint with regard to convicting Kavanaugh in the court of public opinion.
For example, to draw comparisons between this instance and alleged gender discrimination within private businesses as well as questionable shootings by police officers is, I believe, harmful to the public discourse surrounding this situation.