Children at Play and Rape

The sexual abuse of a child is a despicable act.

Innocence lost is gone forever.

Young children being sexually violated by teens and adults is truly vile.

What can you say when the abusers are children themselves?

ACWORTH, Ga. (AP) -- Three boys, ages 8 and 9, were being held in a detention center on charges of kidnapping and raping an 11-year-old girl near a suburban apartment complex, officials said.
The alleged attack happened Thursday and the girl's mother reported it to authorities Sunday, Acworth police Capt. Wayne Dennard said.

"The victim said they were playing outdoors and the girl was forced into a wooded area where she was sexually assaulted, where one of the boys raped her," Dennard told The Associated Press.

The three boys—an 8-year-old and two 9-year-olds—appeared in juvenile court Monday afternoon, dwarfed by the courtroom chairs and wearing navy blue jump suits and shackles. Their names were withheld because of their age.

Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head said the boys could not be charged with felony crimes because of their age but could be tried for alleged delinquent acts that could place them in a juvenile facility for up to five years.

...Acworth Police Chief Mike Wilkie said one of the boys was accused of threatening to hit the girl with a rock before the alleged assault. Wilkie also said the investigation is "far from over," and investigators are looking into claims that after the alleged attack, the girl talked about it with her friends at a slumber party.

The girl's mother told WGCL-TV in Atlanta, "They do need to be taught a lesson because if they do it to her, they could do it to somebody else. And who knows when they become teenagers what they can do to other girls."

Here's more, from WGCL:

The 11-year-old girl said the boys lured her into the woods behind her Acworth apartment complex.

"And they said, let me see your breasts and I said no," the girl said. "And they said you better do it. And they had this kind of like a rope thing and he was hitting me with it and it hurt really bad."

The girl said the little boys raped her against her will.

"I feel very mad what they did to me, because I wish they didn't do this to me," the girl said.

...The father of one of the boys said his son is being accused of luring the girl into the woods.

"He's only 45 inches, 40 pounds in the third grade," the boy's father said. "This girl's in the fifth grade, she's 11 years old, 2 foot taller than him. How can my boy with a broken wrist be accused of any kidnapping charge?"

The boy's father said he believes she made up the story to cover up her promiscuity.

"She's trying to cover her own butt by getting everyone else in more serious trouble," the boy's father said. "I guess we're just going to have to see how this is going to unfold."

This story is sick.

It's sick that children so young are involved in a kidnapping and rape case, as victim and perpetrators.

At first they're playing and then they're allegedly kidnapping and raping. Sick.

It's also sick that an 11-year-old rape victim would speak on camera about her ordeal. Of course, her face wasn't shown, but what's with having a child speak to a local TV station about her alleged rape? That's exploitation of another sort. What was her mother thinking?

And then there's the anger of the father of one of the accused. He claims that his little third grade son with a broken wrist couldn't have forced a much larger fifth grade girl into the woods. The father is accusing the girl of embellishing the story to cover up for her own promiscuity.

Needless to say, there are lots of accusations flying.

One of the saddest things about this story is that these kids have been robbed of that brief, precious innocence of childhood.

They're so young.

They haven't even made it to junior high school!

I can't say that they've grown up way too fast, because they're not grown up. They're children. Aren't they?

Some 8-year-olds still believe in Santa Claus; or if they have their doubts, they may still want to believe.

So much for the joys of being a kid. Not exactly an idyllic childhood.

Maybe it's wrong to refer to them as children. They're young, but they're already old.

In some cases, like this one, traditional definitions of childhood don't seem to apply.

Really sad.