A Staples High School student offered some thoughts on a podcast last week — and ignited an online firestorm. Today, he describes the aftermath of that podcast.
I am a junior at Staples High School, and over the last week my life has been turned upside down.
I am escorted to class every day by school administrators. Classmates I sit beside have told me, in writing, that they wish to gang rape and kill me. My retail job has let me go, claiming of course that it was entirely unrelated.
My home address along with my father’s phone number have been posted online. He now fields a near endless stream of calls from strangers detailing their perspectives on his son.
I have loved ideas my whole life. I launched a newsletter my freshman year, and a podcast over the past summer. I gave my perspective on the situation at Cornell last Tuesday, which was similar to voices as politically opposed as what “The View”’s Sunny Hostin and “The Daily Wire”’s Ben Shapiro both espoused: that under New York state law, and with the evidence given to the district attorney in 2024, the decision not to prosecute was not unreasonable.
My tone may have been too cold, my wording imprecise, but nothing that could possibly merit what happened over the course of the week.
Let’s be fully clear: Rape and sexual assault are among the most disgusting things that occur in our society. The video itself labeled what occurred as “morally wrong” and “disgusting.”
My intention was never to minimize or denigrate anyone who falls victim to these situations. Yet the people who ostensibly claim to share that position were willing to threaten me with becoming a victim of it myself.
I have handled the backlash the best I am able. I cooperated fully with law enforcement and the administration at Staples High School. I have ignored the streams of texts and calls, and deleted Instagram off my phone to avoid obsessing over the situation.
I have attended my classes and walked into school despite being told not to go, both by those looking out for my best interests and bad actors seeking to intimidate me.
My current situation has become untethered from the Cornell case itself. It is a story of a 16-year-old kid who expressed an opinion that, whatever issues in presentation may have precipitated the response, was not outside the Overton Window.
The response was not counter arguments. It was hardly anyone seeking to educate me, understand me, or engage in the sort of discourse that only serves to help make our communities better.
The response was doxxing and death threats.
What has stuck with me most this week is the gap between the unflinching vitriol of the online mob, and the everyday good of the people who know me. What has stuck with me are the friends who have stood by my side, despite facing immense judgment for such a stance.
What has stuck with me are the people who, in the days since the night the clip was posted, have come to me to apologize for their threats and harassment.
I have a teacher I expected to disagree with on nearly every political issue, and I probably do. But I would now say I agree with her on everything that matters. Before class, she spoke to me privately to make sure her classroom would be a safe space for me, too.
It is those people who expressed a commitment to integrity, values and principles, concepts steadier and more important than partisanship. It is a commitment to how you treat people, your peers and neighbors, including those you disagree with.
I have seen people who vehemently disagree with me show more integrity than those who stand by every word I have said. And to say I am forever grateful to those people would be an understatement.
I am not asking everyone to agree with what I said in the video, or any political stances I hold at all. The beauty of living in a town, and a nation, where people have such a diversity of opinions and are allowed to speak their minds freely, is exactly what drew me to being so enamored with ideas at such a young age.
What I would ask is simpler: Let dissent be accompanied by an explanation, not a threat of violence or a doxxing.
Westport is a town that prides itself on being a place that values education and civic participation. If that is true, then it should be the place where a 16-year-old kid can make an argument, however unpopular or poorly expressed, without having his family doxxed, and his little sister living in fear, over it.
That is an entirely apolitical ask, and the bare minimum for a town that wishes to call itself a community.
(“Students Speak” is a forum for all students, who live in or attend school in Westport and Weston. Email submissions to 06880blog@gmail.net. To support this hyper-local blog, click here. Thank you!)
This is so disheartening but not surprising. The worst that could happen (well, not the worst, but…) if this keeps you or others from having your own ideas and expressing them in the future. Know that there are so many that respect and are inspired by those who speak out – no matter what the opinion. Keep on, you deserve credit and this will make you stronger.
this is crazy. I kept thinking this kid’s post was going to end with some version of ‘didn’t happen but could if we keep over-reacting to opinions, over-reacting to events most of us have not and, thankfully, never will ourselves experience.’
and, these maniacs threatening this kid and his family, reacting to this kid not having enough empathy for the victim at Cornell need to appreciate that he’s a kid, i.e., how could he? he’s a kid who thankfully has not himself nor it seems ever known anyone who has experienced anything like that girl at Cornell did.
a lot of people who go ballistic like the ones attacking him are the types who just go nuts over everything nowadays.
the last thing that legit victim of ‘Cornell+’ needs is a bunch of hyper-psychopaths undermining her by threatening people, incl this kid, who can’t possibly be expected to fully comprehend everything she is victim of (esp incl the cover up).
My heart goes out to this young man. I don’t know what he said to ignite such a firestorm, but no one should receive death threats for expressing an opinion.
He defended the lack of prosecution of the gang rapists at Cornell.
“ Classmates I sit beside have told me, in writing, that they wish to gang rape and kill me.‘ Sounds like it’s time to call the police and/or initiate a lawsuit! And it’s in writing!
As noted in the story, he did call the police.
To encourage civil discourse, one must begin by simply putting ideas forward. The student’s podcast was certainly provocative, and I agree that at times it devolved into labels and political and ideological stereotypes. I remember listening and thinking, “This is going to be a hard lesson for him.” His op-ed today, however, is thoughtful, well written, and makes excellent points.
The fact that he found people willing to support him despite his unpopular view is heartening. What is particularly interesting to me is that his factual accounting of the law appears to be what many people took issue with. I am not surprised, though, by the knee-jerk outrage. Too often, people do not listen or read with the intention of learning or understanding; instead, they look for opportunities to become outraged. It seems to have become a favorite national pastime, as we have been conditioned to focus on the things that make us angry rather than the things that might challenge us to think.
There is zero excuse for ignorant, hostile, or threatening responses toward this student—or toward any student. If someone takes issue with another person’s opinion, they should, if they choose to respond, do so civilly and factually. And if they choose not to engage, they should simply say and do nothing. The rational alternative to civil discourse is not harassment; it is disengagement.
Mob mentality is a real phenomenon, and adolescents can be particularly susceptible to it as they are still developing the parts of the brain involved in judgment and decision-making. That makes the role of parents especially important. I hope that when parents heard about this podcast from their children, they encouraged them to research the case, consider the facts, and form their own opinions rather than simply joining a bandwagon of insults and hostility.
It is deeply troubling that this student now needs to be escorted through school and that his family has been subjected to harassment. That should be what provokes outrage in our community, not an unpopular opinion.
Westport is fortunate to have students who are willing to engage with difficult ideas and participate in civic discourse. If we want to call ourselves a community that values education, then we have an obligation to teach young people that disagreement is not an invitation to attack one another. We should be teaching them to question, research, listen, challenge, and respond thoughtfully.
A community where a teenager can express an unpopular opinion without fear of threats, harassment, or retaliation is not merely a community that protects free speech. It is a community that understands what education and civic participation are supposed to be.
Perhaps the one positive to come from all of this is that the flashpoint issue is now on everyone’s radar. The language in New York State’s sexual assault law needs to be changed.
An opinion expressed and an unhinged backlash to follow?
If this mob response were even a scintilla of what has been reported then where does the blame lie?
I agree that if there is the possibility of the authorities finding one of these scoundrels let them be held accountable.
I just googled the following: Under Connecticut law (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-233d), a board of education can expel a student for conduct that violates a published school policy and is either seriously disruptive of the educational process or endangers people or property. A written death threat can easily meet that standard. (I was a former teacher for 38 years and I think expulsion is in order. We all know how one should act. It’s kind of obvious.)
I think this young student has a very bright future ahead of him (him because Dan said so above).
As for the other students who have resorted to doxxing and threats, instead of a strong counter-argument, it is not too late to learn from this error in judgement, and make the necessary course corrections.
I stand by this kid. The 16-year-old said the 2024 decision not to charge was not unreasonable under New York law. He called what happened morally wrong and disgusting. The Tompkins County DA has said the same thing in plainer language: Jane Doe sworn statement described the drug use and the sex as voluntary, conscious, and consensual. New York does not treat voluntary intoxication as incapacity unless the person was physically helpless. That is why charges were not filed. None of that is a rape apology.
The public record is worse for the simple version than campus wants it to be. She told police the night started as a consensual encounter with two men she knew, and that she was okay with it. She texted some of those men in a friendly way afterward. Then a Greek-life forum called it a gang rape, and she told investigators that was the first time the story changed from her being a whore to her being assaulted. She was disinvited from a later party at the house. Her reply was that she knew this would happen and that they were covering their asses. Only after that did the account harden into “90 percent of that night was not consensual,” and then into a lawsuit alleging she was drugged and gang-raped. The men deny it. Title IX did not find every one of them responsible for sexual assault. Nobody has been charged. You are allowed to notice that sequence. You are allowed to say a prosecutor who had the 2024 statement was not crazy to decline.
Westport likes to talk about education and civic participation. What it actually runs, at Staples and in the parent group chats, is a soft political monoculture. Dissent on sex, race, or Israel is not disagreement. It is harm. Once you have defined an opinion as violence, real violence starts to look like accountability. The same people who will correctly say that threats against the Cornell accuser are an attempt to silence her will shrug when a minor who questioned the prosecutor’s 2024 call gets rape threats in writing. The principle was never “don’t threaten people.” The principle was “our side doesn’t get threatened.”
Democrats in this state own the legal half of this too. New York’s intoxication rule is why the DA said he could not charge. Albany has had years to rewrite it. Instead the governor handed the file to Letitia James after the lawsuit and the protests, which is politics catching up to a statute the legislature refused to fix. You cannot spend a decade teaching teenagers that belief is proof, that due process is suspicion, and that the correct response to a cold legal take is social destruction, and then act shocked when a junior gets doxxed for saying what the DA said.
Disagree with him. Explain the statute, the statement, the later texts, the Title IX findings. That is an argument. Posting a family’s address and telling a junior you want to gang-rape him is not activism.
I thought Hate Has No Hope here. Seems to be thriving.
Dan’s article heading says all that has to be said by any and all- citizens, political parties, politicians and students-
“Students Speak”: Disagree With Me. Just Don’t Threaten Me.”
I will add- debate, educate and vote!!
I feel like I am living in Superman’s Bizarro World.
Nobody deserves to receive death threats for their opinions. Obviously.
In what world do 16-year-olds have either the life experience or the professional expertise to be opining on the prosecutorial status of the alleged perpetrators of the gang rape of a 20-year old who was drunk, under the influence of ketamine, and passing in and out of consciousness? If I had a 16-year-old daughter, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want this guy near her, if that is his hot take on the Cornell case. The kid was being a provocateur, nothing more or less.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
(Regarding his job, hopefully he now understands that Connecticut is an “at-will employment” State. I guess we should be thankful that he didn’t mention “cancel culture.”)