Sexual Assault is not Inconsequential

The front pages of Edmonton's newspapers have seen two separate accounts of sexual assault in the past few days. Earlier this week, Eric Tillman was named the new General Manager of the failing franchise of the Edmonton Eskimos after pleading guilty to sexual assault less than a year ago. On Friday, Michael Dubas, a junior high teacher from Morinville, was found not guilty to sexual assault charges against two teenage girls from his school.

According to the media, Tillman grabbed his child's baby sitter from behind and pulled her close in a sexual manner-allegations to which he consequently pleaded guilty. Dubas pleaded not guilty, and was acquitted when the testimony of the girls did not add up with surveillance video from the school.

Situations such as these seem to inevitably spark people's moral judgements on the matter- a circumstance emphasized by CBC.ca's choice to not allow comments on the news stories. With events like these, I personally always try to remember that as "the public" we will never actually know what went on.

In the case of Dubas, I have to wonder if allegations of sexual assault came from no where. When I was in high school everyone knew about the teacher on staff who let his hand linger on the backs of female students when they asked a question about derivates. We largely live in a society where touch is not permitted-when you meet someone, a handshake or curt nod is the norm. Dubas could be an overly friendly mentor like my high school teacher, a personality trait that turned on him when the girls filed charges. Or maybe these students simply didn't like him for any number of reasons and decided to punish him for it. The Edmonton Journal gave Dubas the front page headline that told readers that he was innocent, that his charges were false. Regardless of this, his reputation as an educator of children and as a human being have been forever marred. Although the Journal suggests that Dubas will be offered his position back within the school board, I wonder if he will accept it or find that the serious, often unforgivable blight on his image will keep him away from a career he has devoted his entire life to. If he does want to go back, his students or their parents may treat every innocent touch on the shoulder as if it were a sexual advance from a previously accused man.

On the other hand, Tillman told the media that a mixture of non-prescription sleeping pills and pain medication led to a memory blackout where his admitted sexual assault took place. Once again different scenes run through my head. Was the teenage babysitter flirting with Tillman before hand? Were there previous comments made by Tillman to push the girl to disgrace a public figure with one uncomfortable event? Then there is the event itself. Okay Eric, you say a fluke chemical mix leaves you not remembering anything that happened. Well, I don't personally know many people who have sexually assaulted someone when they were out of mind. That is, unless there was thought or intention before hand. While all of this background is important to keep in mind, the central and most important point of it all is that Tillman made an unwanted sexual advance at a minor, and he pleaded guilty.

I personally have no interest in who they hire to manage the Eskimos. In my opinion, a league with 8 teams who don't even play that well don't deserve my attention. But, if Dubas had been found guilty of sexual assault, he would have been publicly shamed rather than "saved" (if you can call it that) on the front page of the Journal, and never would have stepped foot in the classroom again.

Yet here we have Tillman, a guilty man who has been hired on by a team and a city that seems to hold an ideology that sees failing to run with a ball from one side of a grass field to another as worse than any trivial "sexual assault". While I believe that people who are remorseful should be forgiven, less than a year after Tillman makes headlines with his unacceptable sexual advances, he is rewarded with a franchise that will love him once the Eskimos learn how to run and catch at the same time.