Wow; just wow and not in a good way.
I agree. What apparently happened here has never been OK in civilized society.
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âThe victims were hesitant to participate in the arbitration by SafeSport but they have had time to reconsider and have now brought civil suit.â
When I read that in the article, my impression was that the plaintiffs chose not to go to arbitration on their advice of their attorney(s) and instead opted for a civil trial, where facts would be made public, a jury would decide, and they would have a better chance of success, however they measure it.
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So the following from the article pretty much sums it up. A 14 year old kid in this situation and thinking she will probably lose her horse if she tells. Horrible.
'K.D., according to the SafeSport report âwas afraid to report (McDonaldâs) conduct, lest she lose her paid job and her ability to ride and to train with her horse.â
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Yup. The OC Register article details some errors made by the SafeSport investigator who handled the investigation of their complaint in 2020. It seems like there was concern on the part of the two alleged victims that the errors made by this investigator might undercut the case when everything went in front of the arbitrator, and if that happened, the decision would be binding.
There also apparently were challenges with the lawyers representing the alleged victims at that time (mid 2020), and there was a loss of confidence in that legal team. The women hired new lawyers at some point in late 2020 or during 2021, after their decision not to participate in the original SafeSport arbitration, and SafeSport deciding to administratively close the case.
Hopefully the legal counsel they have on board now serves them well in this case.
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Right?
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Oh. Thatâs interestingâŠ
After reading that Feb. article once again, Iâm glad that the two Jane Does have gone the route of a civil suit. Let the testimony and facts be made public.
Of course itâll be interesting if Bob and Co. attempt an out of court settlement to keep the trial from occurring. (They can try that, right?)
One thing I will point out, though, from the article: The Dalmatian dog Debbie had was not named Rogie. That was the nickname for her flashy hunter and eq/medal horse whose show name was Ask Anyone. The dogâs name was Linus. Itâs minor, and I know nothing about legal things, but I just hope little errors like that wonât lead to questions about her memory of details.
I found K.D.'s statement at the end of the article very poignant:
She was terrified of coming forward, a fear that eventually gave way to thoughts of another generation of shy, young girls riding through their own uncertain worlds.
âI think for some of us older athletes,â K.D. said âI think if we donât step forward nothing is ever going to change for the younger generation.â
Iâm proud of K.D. and the other Jane Doe. Have strength, ladies! 
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Agree 100%
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It is so easy for an adult in authority, heck even another kid, to bully children and young teens into silence. Itâs wonderful to see the mother of one of the really recent abuse victims publicly supporting her daughter. I cannot imagine a mother doing that in the 1970s. And yes, the child in the situation is correct to think her world will explode if she reports things. If the parents are not 100 per cent supportive that may well mean the end of horses. Especially if there is a working student arrangement and the coach holds all access to horses the childâs family canât afford. Itâs just evil, and he needs to be held to account.
The 1970s were interesting times in that there was the strong current of sexual liberation in some parts of society (hippies, Hollywood, disco, some college students) but honestly most of the world was more 1950s, including most parents. Most parents would disapprove of premarital sex for their daughters and worry about their âreputationâ etc. Very transitional time.
It wasnât until the 1980s that child sexual abuse was really named as a thing. Also the 1980s when domestic abuse and womenâs shelters became widely known.
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You put this quite well. Over and over when these SafeSport cases come up involving things that happened 40 or 50 years ago, people make the argument that âthings were different back then, it was the 70âs, etc etcâ ⊠as if that is an excuse for adult men behaving badly.
But once everyone starts arguing over that, people forget about what it was like to be a teenaged girl in the 70âs. Regardless of all the talk about peace and free love, and sexual liberation⊠American society was definitely still much more conservative than it is these days, and if a young woman or teenaged girl was having premarital sex⊠it DID impact her reputation in a negative way amongst many people. So there was certainly an inherent pressure for female victims in these situations to remain silent. Society was unlikely to be supportive or kind to them. There would definitely be some shaming and blaming.
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Yes. It also meant that adult men could try to pressure younger women or girls by telling them they were uptight or prudish or old fashioned or uncool if they rejected their advances. A very creepy kind of seduction pressure. Also used to excuse old fashioned 1950s style grope and leer harassment in the 1970s. You donât like me pinching your bottom, whatâs wrong with you? Radical feminism was a good antidote but not available to everyone who would have benefitted.
Meanwhile it was still generally shocking in the average family or suburb for a couple to live together without being married or a girl to have a baby without being married. Young women who were more âsexually liberatedâ than their parents did a lot of sneaking around and left home ASAP. There was a big watershed difference between people who came of age before and after the 1960s.
Our local show barn owner serial predator wasnât arrested and convicted until the 1980s. I didnât know about all this at the time. It did strike me that the girls from his barn did not look happy.
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Iâm glad theyâre pursuing this and hope they win.
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To be honest, are things so very different today? Arenât women still victims: blamed, named and shamed? How often are rape victims chewed into pieces by authorities, media, even friends and family, while the men get off scot free - even after a trial. Conviction rates for rape remain very very low.
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I think society has advanced quite a bit over the last 50 years, and doesnât conflate/equate promiscuity with premarital sex and rape to the same extent as it used to.
I agree though, that women are still named and shamed when rape cases come up, and that the judicial system (both criminal and civil) is really tough, and conviction rates are very low. I think a significant challenge is the very nature of the crime⊠this sort of thing happens in secret, victims are often traumatized in the immediate aftermath, and there are delays in reportingâŠ. and thus, itâs frequently very hard to prove these cases.
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And all too often evidence is simply stored and not processed, sometimes for years.
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No, things donât seem to be much different these days.
From the Feb. 2021 linked article:
(From K.D.): âWhen the investigator was interviewing me on video camera, he asked me if I was a virgin at the time of my rape.â
Iâm surprised K.D. wasnât also asked by the Safe Sport investigator if she was wearing particularly seductive barn clothes each time she was sexually assaulted. 
Itâs no wonder she lost faith in the Safe Sport process and bowed out of the arbitration.
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Things are still bad, especially on acquaintance rape cases. But things were way worse all around in the 1960s and into the 1970s. Date rape wasnât even a concept, neither was spousal rape or domestic assault. And even consensual premarital sex was still frowned upon by the parental generation. Babies born out of wedlock were still routinely given up for adoption.
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Forget the 60s and 70sâŠI had a friend who was raped by her husband in the very late 90s and she had no legal recourse, because in her state there was no such thing as marital rape.
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Yes these things move slowly.
Iâd say in the 1960s and 70s there was not even a concept of marital rape, there wasnât a concept of date rape. There was a concept of being kidnapped at knife point, maybe, which is why you werenât supposed to go out alone or at night without, you know, a husband or boyfriend to protect you.
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