The John. R.K. Howard case drew outrage from disabled people nationwide. Howard, a football player from Dietrich, Idaho, was sentenced to 300 hours community service and three years probation after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault. This is the latest in a long line of cases where football players received light sentences for sexual assault.
Howard sodomized autistic teen
Howard and several other players were charged over a 2015 incident where they stuck a coat hanger in the rectum of Antwon McDaniel. McDaniel had moderate autism and the players took advantage of it to abuse and bully him in various ways.
Some of them include making him sing various ethnic slur-laced songs about himself and vandalizing his locker by writing ethnic slurs on it. The coat hanger was just the final straw. Antwon now lives in an assisted living facility and has lasting scars from the incident. His mental health was such that he attempted suicide. McDaniel was the sole African-American on the team.
According to the McDaniel family, the school had full knowledge of the bullying but chose to ignore it. The school denies that it knew anything about what Howard and the rest of the team were doing. They played a recording of Antwon recanting his statements. However, the family maintains that he was not in the right frame of mind due to the medication he was on.
Furthermore, the recanting was done solely in the presence of the football coaches with no mental health professionals present.
The small town is divided over the issue. The McDaniel family has moved out as a result of multiple death threats from the townspeople.
Howard's lenient sentence
Howard's lenient sentence has drawn comparisons to the Brock Turner case, another football player who got a light sentence for sexual assault.
The judge in the Howard case, Randy Stoker maintains that there was no sexual assault or racism involved in the case. In his sentencing, he spoke against people from the East Coast getting involved. There is currently a petition to remove Stoker from the bench as there was a petition to remove the judge in the Turner case.
The family is suing the school for $10 million in a civil case. The school and coaches maintain that the family is making up the story.
