A group of Lakewood High athletes formed the Spur Posse (named after the San Antonio basketball team) four years ago as a sort of highschool fraternity. One of their main activities was “hooking up,” or having sex, with as many girls as possible. By dint of their local-hero status and sweet-talking skills, the Spur Posse athletes took turns having sex with the same girls, gleefully boasting about it later and insisting that their partners were not only willing articipants but, in some cases, also “sluts.”
The question of whether the Lakewood girls were in fact game is troubling–though of limited use as a defense. Under California law, sex with minors is a crime even if they consent. “The indication is that [the girls] lay back and let them do it,” says Commander Robert Ripley, head of the L.A. County Sheriff Department’s Juvenile Investigations Bureau. But why? One 11-year-old girl has told police that she was sleeping over at a girlfriend’s house when a young man came in through the window-standard operating procedure for the Posse-and demanded sex. She complied, she says, because she had heard that the Spurs would hurt girls who didn’t cooperate.
Feminist attorney Gloria Allred announced last week that she would represent two of the seven girls who have lodged complaints. The sheriff’s department hopes to make additional arrests. Meanwhile, Lakewood is attempting to understand-and to heal. This week Lakewood High begins a series of assemblies on date rape, the first one just for girls. Clearly, everyone has a lot to learn.
