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This movie details the gang rape of a young mentally retarded girl, and the trial of her rapists that follows. Sexual assault/abuse of the physically and/or mentally disabled is a crime that goes largely unreported and/or unprosecuted for a number of reasons. Lifetime did a wonderful job with this delicate subject matter, and I recommend it to anyone who cares about violence prevention.

Based on the book of the same name, this movie does what it can to portray a story that has much more content than can be feasibly be told in under two hours. The acting is passable, certainly not stunning Oscar-type performances. However, it's the subject matter here that is most important. A group of jocks molest and assault a mentally handicapped "peer." Are these boys responsible for a heinous crime or did the girl consent to everything? I'd recommend reading the book. It delves very thoroughly into exploring an ugly and disturbing issue: parents that elevate their children until they are lionized for no other reason than they are perceived to be big fish in a very small, small pond. This goes a long way in explaining how these kids could reduce another student to nothing more than a piece of meat, a toy, a thing to be used and then disposed of like anything else in their lives. Denial of responsibility? No problem. It is what comes natural to adolescents who have been taught that they can do no wrong. These are the leaders of tomorrow (actually, today) and that, in itself, is chilling to contemplate. I've heard it said by some that these boys have redeemed themselves for what they did in the past so long ago. I disagree. Can there even BE redemption for what these junior SS officers did in the Scherzer basement that fateful day? These boys (now men) will remain scum throughout their pitiful lives. They graduated high school and found that the world doesn't care about how many football games they won in their teenage years. Rightly so.