Ma'lik Richmond, convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl in 2012, is back on the Steubenville High School football team in Ohio, The New York Daily News reported on Wednesday.
Richmond, 18, practiced with the team on Monday as a wide receiver. Reno Saccoccia, Steubenville's head football coach, said Richmond has earned a second chance at football, rather than being given one as some may feel.
Fred Abdalla Jr., Jefferson County's chief probation officer said there isn't a law barring anyone in Richmond's position from playing football, according to WTRF. He said he thinks "the boy should be allowed to play," and added that Richmond has done everything the courts have asked him to do since he was sentenced.
Decisions regarding player eligibility are left up to the schools when it comes to off-the-field matters according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, The New York Daily News reported.
Though Richmond might be allowed to return to Steubenville's Big Red football team, some are outraged and thought the school would make a larger statement by not allowing him back. Alexandra Goddard, a blogger who worked to bring the case into the nation's conscience, said she wanted to be shocked, but knew allowing Richmond to play was bound to happen.
"Steubenville City Schools hasn't really done a lot in the past two years to prove to the world that they don't tolerate rape culture and allowing a Tier II registered sex offender on the team pretty much solidifies the assumption that they are concerned about wins rather than the safety of young girls or the destruction of rape culture in their area," she wrote in an email to BuzzFeed.
Richmond, along with fellow football player Trent Mays, was convicted in March 2013 of raping a West Virginia girl at a party. The case fueled discourse about normalizing sexual violence and online bullying after hacker group Anonymous exposed photos and videos made the night the girl was raped. Some of the images show two males carrying the inebriated girl by her ankles and wrists while other teens made jokes at her expense.
Richmond served nine months of his one-year prison sentence and was released in January. He must register as a Tier II sex offender every 180 days for 20 years.
