Force A Teen Girl To Swordfight, Go To Jail

[Char-Nobyl]

On Saturday, October 15, Fremon Seay's teenaged stepdaughter went to a party in Puyallup, Washington. By going she was defying Seay and her mother, and Seay drove to the event and dragged her home.

Typical situation for the parents of a teenager, right? So far. When they arrived home however, things took a turn for the baffling.

After beating the girl with what reports are calling "a tree branch,"

So...a switch? That's hardly a new practice. I don't think it's a good habit for parents, but it's not some sort of new, sadistic thing.

the 300-plus pound Seay sat on the girl's back, before deciding to blend her punishment with his ongoing love of the Renaissance Fair. Seay, it seems, spends much of his free time dressed in faux armor having faux swordfights with other adults dressed as faux knights, and now that his stepdaughter was 16, he decided that she was now old enough to have a swordfight with him.

Thus, she was sent off to gather her armor. On returning to the front lawn, the girl was forced to battle her stepfather -- an event that consisted entirely of Seay beating the girl with a wooden sword from 2AM to 4AM. Following the "duel," the girl collapsed, covered in bruises.

Really? You had a groundball here: 300lbs man pummels 16 year old girl with a wooden sword for two hours, under the bizarre pretenses that it's something other than a one-sided beating. Instead, you're going out of your way to mock his hobbies. I'm not a participant myself, but I know a few people who sword-spar fairly regularly or take part in armor-fighting. That's just a needless low-blow, Cavalli. It's like Fox News randomly adding to a criminal's description that, "He spends hours on end submerged in a digital, delusional fantasy world, duped into paying a monthly fee for what might as well be a second job." It's a shallow attempt to make the target look worse, but even if I wouldn't be surprised to hear it from Fox, I'm surprised to hear it from an Escapist writer.

At this point, "her parents allegedly made her strip down to her underwear and then watch a 'Sunday sermon' on TV by an unknown preacher," according to the generally reliable Seattle Weekly [http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/10/fremon_seay_yelm_renaissance_d.php].

Are you joking? The guy beat his stepdaughter with a wooden sword for two hours, then forced her to strip and watch a TV preacher? And you still thought you had to make him look worse?

Whenever an event like this occurs -- and by "event like this," I mean anything that is simultaneously horrid and almost hilariously weird -- it is always our first instinct as rational human beings to assuage our fears of a truly random, uncaring reality by assigning blame.

So, what would you boys and girls like to pin this on? The RenFaire scene? Organized religion? The idiosyncrasies of rural America? Personally, I was leaning toward "fat dudes with cliché facial hair," but I'm up for whatever.

...right. Then why suggest it might be something else? He beat her with a plain old tree branch first. Why aren't woodlands on the list of possible culprits?

 

[McNinja]

It's ok. When he gets charged for abuse and her mother for negligence and compliance with the assault of a minor, both will get their asses beat in prison.

 

[electronicgoat]

Honestly, from the title I expected some brat phoning the police because she didn't want to take a fencing class or something. I'm reasonably sure this is worse.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

(Face palm) Sheesh, as if Ren Faire cosplayers didn't have enough stigma already...

 

[Dr.Fantastic]

This guy is a douche, Plan and simple.

He should have used a fireball instead.

 

[Xanadu84]

You know, there is a lesson here. Fellow geeks, we are all likely familiar with being something of an outcast. And from that, we banded together, and developed a relatively close community. Its important to remember that we have just as many bastards and wastes of skin as any other social group, and we don't need to defend them just because they have similar interests. We don't have to defend him because he likes something that gets funny looks from "Normal" people. We can hear that he beat his daughter and say, "Rot in jail asshat". That does not reflect poorly on Ren Faires or anything else geeky.

 

[Jared Brokaw]

WHY ISN'T ANY BODY MENTIONING THAT ITS KINDA THE GIRLS FAULT? Her parents told her not to go, she disregarded them and she got punished. She obviously should have gotten grounded and not beaten but still no matter how much wrong the parents did this could have been easily avoided if she had listened to her parents.

 

[Alar]

That was strangely hilarious. The girl shouldn't be such a ***** though, even if she did get beaten. Honestly, looking at his size unless she was some fatass she had the advantage.

What.
How.
I don't--

Okay, so you're saying just because someone is overweight, they cannot be proficient at swordplay? They cannot know how to use their greater mass to their advantage and bully a sixteen year old GIRL with it?

Let's not forget the fact that she's already been beaten before this happened and wasn't exactly in a decent shape to swordfight, something she'd probably never done before while he had his own armor and everything?

I don't know what's going through your mind here, sir. You're supporting the beating of children (if I'm reading you correctly), and yes, I say children. She is still legally a child.

Yes that's what I am saying. I'm sure I made that clear enough in the previous post. And I don't really care if she was beaten. Sure its not fair, but honestly, put on a better show. Gotta kick the old mans ass.

Do the world a favor and go get a vasectomy. Oh, and don't have any semen saved in a sperm bank... because really, we do not need you to be a parent if this is how you feel about this situation.

 

[Tiger Sora]

She isn't dead, so I'm going to continue chuckling for the next few seconds. But I can't get the wtf feeling off me.

Now I demand that man fight against me. I just need to borrow some armor and I'll whoop his ass with my spear. I'll take the point off though.

 

[Sean Steele]

WHY ISN'T ANY BODY MENTIONING THAT ITS KINDA THE GIRLS FAULT? Her parents told her not to go, she disregarded them and she got punished. She obviously should have gotten grounded and not beaten but still no matter how much wrong the parents did this could have been easily avoided if she had listened to her parents.

Cause that's a completely idiotic point. "Oh you jaywalked thus we shot you but its kinda your fault." Brutality of people in charge of someone is the fault of the brutalizer.

Protip you cant do anything to a child that you cant do to an adult in fact you can do less. If an adult hits another adult that adult has the right to sue the offender and have them imprisoned as dose a child.

 

[Sansha]

WHY ISN'T ANY BODY MENTIONING THAT ITS KINDA THE GIRLS FAULT? Her parents told her not to go, she disregarded them and she got punished. She obviously should have gotten grounded and not beaten but still no matter how much wrong the parents did this could have been easily avoided if she had listened to her parents.

No.

This kind of response is totally inexcusable, regardless of her behavior. A two-hour beating followed by forcing her to strip and submit herself to her stepfather's religious lunacy is not just punishment for going to a party without their permission.

Both of them deserve to go to jail for this, and she deserves a better family, one that isn't going to submit her to a physically and emotionally scarring beating.

 

[Sandernista]

So, what would you boys and girls like to pin this on?

I think "The ingrained insanity that lurks in every human being." just about covers it. Humans can be such weird critters, and we're all susceptible to it in one way or another.

Jup, nothing to see here folks. Just another crazed human. Let the law handle it. Awful stuff like this doesn't really deserve much attention.
Still the coolest character after the Imp, even though he's a minor one. I keep my fingers crossed that he'll make an epic return and continues to tutor Arya when he finds her. Spoil nothing!

Haha, silly commoner. Thinking there will be a happy ending for anybody even remotely related to the ASoIaF books/tv show.

OT: Wow. And I thought my dad was bonkers. That was just him dressing up a beating as some sort of 'contest'.

 

[Raddra]

Still the coolest character after the Imp, even though he's a minor one. I keep my fingers crossed that he'll make an epic return and continues to tutor Arya when he finds her. Spoil nothing!

Truth be told.

Honestly him, Arya and Tyrion were one of the main reasons I kept watching.

As for the article: I'm disgusted.

 

[orangeapples]

that was a good read.

to be honest, teaching children to swordfight isn't such a bad idea, however this was like Firelord Ozai status.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

I always though people who dress up and go to the Renaissance Fair were deranged.

Guess I was right... : /

Yes, let's use this fact to rightly exterminate them all

 

[Tselis]

The mother, for not only not defending her child, but for going so far as to condone the abuse of her child.

 

[jawakiller]

Wow, not gonna lie:

That's a fucking sweet punishment. Duel my old man.
Huh, wha? He beat her with a tree branch? Bullshit, it was prolly a switch. Now sitting on her, I can see why he got in trouble.

Besides, you never challenge a woman to a duel. What the fuck is wrong with him? There is no honor in destroying a female (and apparently no challenge either in his case).

My knightly order looks down upon this lowly serf for his ignoble attempt at a duel. Next time he must challenge her boyfriend to a duel. Then this would be fair. Make him defend her honor. Women are not built for the challenge of mortal combat. Unless she's playing as Noob Smoke. Then maybe. I digress.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

I dunno guys. Maybe it's just me but for one summer I was involved with a few members of the Society of Creative Anachronism, a group pretty much dedicated to dressing in period clothes and sometimes dueling in various levels of unsupervised combat (from flexible rapier-style blades with safety nubs to heavy plastic armor and padded wood swords and shields). The group puts a lot of emphasis on safety, but the responsible ones can't be shepherding the rest all the time, y'know?

I doubt the entire group shares a similar mentality, but the group I was involved with... were psychotic. I don't mean in the "Yeah, let's all dress up and fight!" psychotic, like over-enthusiastic football fans. I mean emotionally crippled, socially desolate, fecal-smeared house, we'd be rednecks but we can't afford shotguns, "I've always wanted to have sex with my half-sister" psychotic. And no, I'm not using actual examples of their psychosis, but they were one swig of homemade meade and a visit from Child Welfare services away from it.

There are plenty of people out there who get into this kind of living because they enjoy the look and they want a fun way to express themselves. And then there are people who flock to this lifestyle because they never really got a firm grasp on the real world.

 

[ADDLibrarian]

I was thinking this was going to be semi funny- old man makes his daughter spar, police blow it way out of hand. No. This...is child abuse. It's not funny. Only George Carlin could make child abuse funny (he made rape funny) and he's no longer with us. Therefore child abuse is no longer funny. Not that I expect all the news stories to be sunshine and rainbows, but damn. This man needs to be in jail for a long long time.