end-of-semester catch-up 2009.

After the craziness of finals season, it’s time to catch up on some of the headlines we’ve missed: a case of alleged rape in a CA middle school is being referred to as a case of hormones gone wild, charges have been dropped against a 9-year-old defendant in this past summer’s Phoenix gang rape case, new statistics regarding sexual harassment at work have us scared to graduate, Uganda has taken a big step by finally banning female circumcision, and a sexually-frustrated husband in New Zealand intentionally infected his wife with HIV.

• According to the Huffington Post, an HIV-positive New Zealand man injected his own blood into his sleeping wife, effectively infecting her with the virus. The man reportedly resorted to such drastic measures so that his wife, who had been previously scared of contracting the virus herself, would start having sex with him again. He now faces up to 14 years in jail.
• Good news this holiday season for young women and children in Uganda, which has now officially banned female genital mutilation, aka female circumcision. Though Uganda officials still maintain that it is only practiced in rural areas, and not very commonly, the new legislation promises to bring those who subject girls to such cruel, harmful practices to justice. [via BBC]
• According to a new report, 1 in 3 women have been sexually harassed at work. Not only did 32% of those polled admit to being subjected to inappropriate remarks or suggestions, but 16% claimed that they actually dread going to work “for fear of facing lecherous conduct.” Among the other statistics: 1 in 5 have been “forced to fend off” advances, while 1 in 20 has actually had to leave a job because of constant sexual harassment. [via Daily Mail]
• Back during the summer months, GCNova kept you up to date about the Phoenix, AZ gang rape case, in which an 8-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by four boys, age 9-15. According to recent news reports, the charges against the youngest defendant, the 9-year-old boy, have been dropped because he is too young to understand the justice system. Let’s hope the same does not happen with the other three defendants. And, we’ve also learned that the parents of the 8-year-old girl have been arrested and charged with child abuse… good news considering the way in which they publicly blamed their own daughter for the brutal gang rape.
• It seems as though, since we’ve been keeping up with this blog, the instances of rape in our schools is more common than we’d like to believe. Another case has come up. A 14-year-old CA middle school student will not be charged as an adult, after an alleged rape in the stairwell of Portola Middle School. The details are confusing on this one, as school officials are not convinced that the incident was not consensual. In any case, they should probably stop claiming that it’s nothing more than “hormones raging” until they actually get it sorted out.

In GCNova news, our first big fundraising drive was a success! Thank you to all of those who supported victims of sexual, domestic, and child violence by participating in our events! We’ll see you again second semester