As the news got out about Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his now wife Janay Palmer, knocking her unconscious, many staff members and students in the ERHS community have been talking about the incidents.

After TMZ released the video of Rice dragging Palmer out of the elevator, many were curious about the events that occurred inside the elevator. Within the past week a new video was released of the events that occurred in the Atlantic City casino in February.

Some students have spoken out about how they feel about the Ray Rice situation and domestic violence as a whole, and responses, while at times slightly varied, have generally been along the same lines.

Many students have agreed that the NFL did the right thing by firing Ray Rice. However, many students, like senior Tobi Aderotoye, said they feel that the original punishment of a two game suspension was too light.

“Violence of any type should not be tolerated and such light consequences may allow incidents to occur again” said Aderotoye.

Senior Jeffrey Findlater said he believes that what the NFL did was right, but “it is not the NFL’s duty to stop domestic violence” and “whatever takes place in the privacy of a home is not their concern.”

Student opinions about whether Rice’s punishment reflects a double standard for men and women are split.

Some students like senior Milan Brown think that “society as a whole is developed enough to see past gender stereotypes of women being weak”. However, Brown said she believes that if the roles were switched “it would have brought a lot of atypical domestic abuse cases to light.”  

Senior Olushola Omomo, on the other hand, said she thinks that “If it was the other way around, it probably wouldn’t have been as serious and social media would have turned it into a joke”.