Myisha Nawar

Dear Mr. Dan Turner,
I am not a parent. Nor do I have the slightest clue about parenting, but I can confidently say that you have failed your son, and sequentially have failed as a father.
Newsflash: I DO NOT care how many awards your son won, or what superlatives he achieved in high school, or the discipline required for him to become an elite swimmer at Stanford University. Your son, Brock Turner, is guilty of sexual assault, and while his actions on the night in question are his own, YOU, Mr. Turner, the elder statesmen in his life, are just as accountable for the culpable and irreversible damage caused to the victim as Brock is.Your son’s case reeks of white privilege and sexism. Remember Brian Banks? Let me remind you. The promising African-American high school football star who dedicated to playing at Southern Cal spent six years behind bars after being wrongfully convicted of rape. For about 2200 days, Banks lived with hardened criminals, and yet, YOU had the gall and the unjustifiable chutzpah to prop up before a judge and ask that your son’s proposed six-year sentence AFTER BEING CONVICTED OF SEXUALLY ASSAULTING AN UNCONSCIOUS WOMAN BEHIND A DUMPSTER, be cut to probation because “that is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.” Banks happens to be innocent of the crime and you think your son-WHO WAS CAUGHT IN THE ACT-should be absolved for his vile and VERY ILLEGAL act because it just took twenty minutes to commit? Unlike what was demonstrated in Judge Aaron Persky’s courtroom when your rightfully disgraced son was presented with a six-month sentence, one’s actions (DESPITE HOW LONG IT TOOK TO COMMIT) has a direct consequence!
Good, sound parents who live in said real world try their hardest to instill proper decision making, the difference between right and wrong, the old adage “do unto others,” in their children because one bad move can end up having a profound affect on your life. That is precisely why parents direct their children to look both ways before crossing the street, Mr. Turner. From your son’s actions, it seems that you taught him to look both ways to ensure no one caught him as he entered—without permission—the woman he sexually assaulted. And let me be crystal clear, some will assert you pleading for a lenient punishment is a parent’s love. If that is so, then what do you make of the Chicago area woman who in April 2015 turned her then 15-year-old son, Deshawn Isabelle, into police custody after local news outlets and publications posted photos of him exiting Chicago Transit Authorities’ Blue Line scene after physically and sexually assaulting a woman? I assume having to turn her child in, to the police, wasn’t a highlight for her as a mother, reports indicate she even instructed Assistant State’s Attorney Joe DiBella to shut up and yelled “Quit talking sh*t about my child” as she read aloud the boorish and petrifying details of the attack to press, yet that mother still turned her child in.
As you, Mr. Turner, read your abominable statement in the courtroom trying to help your son, did you ever question where his odious character stems from? Your son brings new definition to the word desperate as he preyed on a woman, waited until she was unconscious before assaulting her. Consensual sex often happens on college campuses and athletes at most prestigious universities don’t have to try hard when it comes to getting the attention of college women, yet your son chose what was repulsive and “easy.”
It is widely accepted and understood teens and young adults in their 20s do stupid things as they strengthen their footing in life. This is not one of THOSE stupid things. Brock’s actions were deliberate. This sense of “I can so I will no matter who gets hurt” is who your son is. Does that sit well with you? YOUR SON WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE. YOUR SON WILL HURT. YOUR SON IS A COWARD WHO WAITS, UNTIL SOMEONE IS DEFENSELESS, TO STRIKE A FEROCIOUS BLOW. And now your son knows daddy will be there to save the day (his day).
By the way, there are also other parents involved in this case. Did you forget about them? They are parents who sent their daughter to college to receive an education, make lifelong friends, have fun and create lasting memories. They are parents who did not send their daughter to college to become a part of the growing number of women sexually assaulted on college campuses.
Your son—and I continue to use those words “your son” because he is yours—is the exact evil parents protect their daughters from, and here you are attempting to protect him from a punishment, which, HE RIGHTFULLY DESERVES.
As I stated earlier, I am not a parent, nor do I know the first thing about parenting but you failed Brock, thus failed as a father.

*sigh*