Tennis sensation Serena Williams had some blunt words of wisdom and harsh criticism for the 16-year-old girl who was raped by two high school football players in Ohio in August 2012: You kind of brought this on yourself.
She said in a Rolling Stone interview posted by Deadspin that she wasn’t blaming the girl, who was victimized by two Steubenville, Ohio, football players — Trent Mays and La’Lik Richmond — in a case that grabbed national headlines for months. The two boys went on to serve a year in juvenile jail for the rapes.
But Williams’ statements seemed accusatory, nonetheless.
The New York Post reported Williams as saying: “Do you think it was fair, what they got? They did something stupid, but I don’t know. I’m not blaming the girl, but if you’re a 16-year-old and you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you — don’t take drinks from other people. It could have been much worse. She’s lucky. Obviously, I don’t know, maybe she wasn’t a virgin, but she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that’s different.”
The two teen boys were charged with rape after law enforcement was shown a video, posted online, of them bragging about the incident.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.