A University of Oregon film student felt compelled to respond to some of the issues surrounding the Steubenville rape case -- and has 1.3 million views on YouTube.

Samantha Stendal, 19, directed “A Needed Response” and addressed it to “the Steubenville rapists … or any rapists out there,” in order to show the world how real men treat women.

"It is horrifying to me that some people can say that people deserve rape when they are passed out," said Stendal to the NY Daily News.

Samantha Stendal

Samantha Stendal is a sophomore at the University of Oregon.

In Stendal’s 26-second-long video, a woman (Kelsey Jones) pretends to be passed out, and a man (Justin Gotchall) gets her some water and places a pillow under her head. Then he faces the camera and says, “Real men treat women with respect.”

"I was studying for my finals, and on the side I was reading about the Steubenville rape case. I grew very frustrated with the media," Stendal told NBC News on Tuesday. "That's when I came up with the idea for this video."

Gotchall, who is a philosophy major, added, "After we saw the media coverage of the Steubenville rape cases, we just had to do this."

"I think this video is powerful in its simplicity," Desertra87 posted as a comment on YouTube. After being up only four days, the video had more than 4,000 comments and more than a million views.

Last week, Steubenville High School football players Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond were convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl at a raucous house party in the small Ohio town.

The story had already made headlines because of the issues surrounding the case, such as social media harassment and teenage partying gone wild. But media coverage following the convictions generated even more controversy and angered many when some reporters seemed to focus on the loss of the two football players’ bright future -- and not on the victim’s trauma.

"What really upsets me is what the news is going to, what the Internet is going to … which is asking what the victim could have done differently," Stendal told KVAL 13 News in Eugene, Ore. "I'm upset that in our culture that is one of the first questions asked."

Stendal, a sophomore, added, "The message I hope that people can get from this video is that we need to treat one another with respect. No matter what gender, we should be listening to each other and making sure there is consent."

Stendal, now on her spring break, is applying for video internships.

In a case that is drawing comparisons to the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case, police in a Connecticut town have charged two members of the high school football team with sexual assault involving different 13-year-old girls.

Torrington Police

Edgar Gonzales, left, and Joan Toribio

At least one of the alleged victims has been reportedly taunted online.

Though many of the details of the allegations are sealed from the public, two Torrington High School football players, Edgar Gonzales and Joan Toribio, both 18, are charged with felony second-degree sexual assault and other crimes, The Associated Press reported. The allegations stem from an investigation that began on Feb. 10.

The two men, who the AP reports lived in the same condominium, have both pleaded not guilty.

Gonzalez's lawyer, J. Patten Brown III, told NBC News that the allegations against his client involve statutory rape — illegal sex with a person under the age of consent.

Gonzalez remains in detention in New Haven, Brown said, because he is unable to post bail.

Toribio's attorney, Charles F. Brower, told NBC News he could not discuss the case at all. According to the AP, Toribio is free on bond.

According to the Register Citizen, whose reporter Jessica Glenza collected social network posts related to he case, dozens of athletes and Torrington High School students have taunted one of the victims on social media sites. She was called a “whore,” criticized for “snitching” and accused of “ruining the lives” of the players.

On Sunday, Trent Mays and Ma’Lik Richmand, both players on the Steubenville, Ohio, high school football team, were convicted of raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl during a series of alcohol-fueled parties. She was also threatened online.

On Tuesday, prosecutors charged two girls, 15 and 16, with intimidation of a victim, telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing for posing threatening tweets about the Steubenville victim on the day the verdict was announced.

Two Ohio high school football players have been found guilty of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in a case that roiled a small city and stirred reaction from activists online.

Judge Thomas Lipps ruled Sunday in juvenile court that Steubenville High School students Trent Mays and Ma'Lik Richmond are guilty of attacking the girl after an alcohol-fueled party last August.

The 17-year-old Mays and 16-year-old Richmond were charged with digitally penetrating the West Virginia girl, first in a car and then in a house.

Judge Tom Lipps ordered Richmond held in a juvenile detention facility for at least one year and Mays at least two years. The juvenile system could hold them until age 21. Both were required to register as juvenile sex offenders.

Mays and Richmond both apologized tearfully after being found guilty.

"I'd like to apologize to her family, [the] community. No pics should have been sent. That's all sir," said Mays.

"I'd like to apologize to you people. I had no intentions to do anything, I'm sorry to put you through this — I'm sorry, I didnt... " said Richmond as he broke down crying.

Afterwards, the mother of the victim's mother, who is not being named, gave a statement to the media, saying:

"It did not matter what school you went to, what city you lived in, or what sport you've played. Human compassion is not taught by a teacher coach or parent. It is a God-given gift instilled in all of this. You displayed not only a lack of this compassion but a lack of any moral code. Your decisions that night affected countless lives including those most dear to you. You were your own accuser through social media you chose to publish your criminal conduct on. This does not define who my daughter is. She will persevere, grow, and move on.

"I have pity for you both. I hope you fear the Lord, repent for your actions and pray hard for his forgiveness," she concluded.

The case divided the community amid allegations that more students should have been charged and led to questions about the influence of the football team, a local source of a pride.

After the guilty verdicts, Ohio's attorney general said he will convene a grand jury to investigate whether other people should be charged in the case.

Activist groups have questioned why people who knew about the rape weren't charged under state law requiring people to report crimes.

Attorney General Mike DeWine said Sunday "this community desperately needs to have this behind them but this community also desperately needs to know justice was done and that no stone was left unturned."

Related:
Prosecution, defense rest their cases in Steubenville rape trial
Steubenville high school rape trial zeroes in on texts, photos, video
As rape trial opens, prosecutors says girl was 'too impaired to say no'

The prosecution and defense in the trial of two Ohio high school football players charged with raping an incapacitated 16-year-old girl rested their cases and the judge said he would announce his verdict on Sunday morning.

After hearing closing arguments from both sides in the case, the judge presiding over the non-jury trial adjourned the proceedings for the evening to weigh the evidence before giving his verdict at 10 a.m.

The 16-year-old accuser in the trial of two Ohio high school football players charged with raping her while she was drunk at a party took the stand on Saturday and said she remembered little of what happened on the night she says she was assaulted.

The girl recounted drinking vodka mixed with store-bought frozen slushies at the party that evening, then finding herself sitting on a curb early the next day, after the alleged rape, with her hands between her legs, vomiting into the street.

She testified that she otherwise had no recollection of her own of what happened in the early hours of August 12, 2012, when witnesses in the case have said she was too drunk to move or talk.

Under its policy of keeping the names of accusers in rape cases confidential, Reuters is not identifying the girl.

Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, two members of the Steubenville High School football team, are charged as juveniles with raping the girl by digital penetration while she was essentially unconscious.

Mays and Richmond have denied raping her and say that any sexual contact that occurred was consensual.

The case, being tried before a judge rather than a jury, drew national attention to the Ohio steel town of Steubenville, 40 miles west of Pittsburgh, after photo and video images from the party were posted online appearing to document the assault.

The girl testified that she only learned what had happened to her from text messages, pictures and other bits of information posted on social media by classmates who witnessed the assaults. Some of those witnesses have testified.

Tearful reaction
Prosecutors displayed to her some of the pictures that circulated on social media, including one that showed her naked with what prosecutors say is semen on her stomach.

Keith Srakocic / Pool via Reuters

Trent Mays, 17, enters court for the fourth day of his trial on rape charges in juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio.

The girl started crying as she looked at the photo, saying she had never seen the image before.

"Who is that in the photo?" prosecutor Marrianne Hemmeter asked.

"Me," the girl answered.

"How does it make you feel?" Hemmeter said.

"Not good."

The girl also testified that when she finally went to the hospital, after seeing a video in which classmates joked about the assault, she was reluctant to identify her assailants.

When Hemmeter asked her why, the girl replied: "Because honestly, I was praying that everything I heard wasn't true. I didn't want to get myself into drama because I knew everyone would just blame me."

Defense attorneys have questioned whether the witnesses in the case remembered details from the party or were just repeating rumors that circulated afterward through their social groups or from investigators looking into the rape allegations.

Keith Srakocic / Pool via Reuters

Ma'lik Richmond, 16, enters court for the fourth day of his and co-defendant, Trent Mays, 17, trial on rape charges in juvenile court on March 16, 2013 in Steubenville, Ohio.

Earlier on Saturday, the defense called two former friends of the accuser - Kelsey Weaver and Gianna Anile - who testified that the girl had a reputation for dishonesty.

Weaver, 17, testified the accuser had told her she liked Mays. Weaver also said she watched the accuser drink four shots of vodka and two beers and flirt with Richmond on the night she says the rape occurred.

Weaver said the accuser told her she thought she had been drugged as well - a conclusion Weaver said she did not believe. Asked by defense why she had doubts, Weaver said, "Because (she) lies about things."

Both Weaver and Anile were with the accuser on the night of the alleged rape. Both testified that they ended their friendship with her because of the accusations.

On Friday, Mark Cole, a teammate of Mays and Richmond, granted immunity for his testimony, said he recorded a video of Mays performing a sex act on the girl while she was passed out during a car ride between houses in Steubenville the night of the party, but he deleted the footage the next morning.

A second teammate, Evan Westlake, who also was granted immunity, testified he saw Richmond commit a sex act on the girl on the basement floor of a house that same night.

If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to a juvenile detention facility until they turn 21, and be required to register as sex offenders.

Related:

• Steubenville rape suspects' teammates testify they saw them commit sex acts
• Steubenville high school rape trial zeroes in on texts, photos, video
• As rape trial opens, prosecutor says girl was 'too impaired to say no'

Keith Srakocic / Pool via Reuters

Trent Mays, left, and Ma'lik Richmond sit in juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio, on Friday.

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- Teammates of two high school football players from Ohio accused of raping a girl at a party last summer testified on Friday they saw their classmates commit sex acts on the girl during the alcohol-fueled events that night.

A third witness, a friend of the defendants who was also granted immunity, said he saw both defendants making sexual contact with her while she appeared to be passed out, naked and face down on a basement floor.

"She wasn't moving. She wasn't talking. She wasn't participating," said Anthony Craig, 18.

The rape case against Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, drew national attention to the Ohio steel town of Steubenville, on the West Virginia border and about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh, after a photo and video from the party were posted online.

The computer hacking group Anonymous later publicized the picture of two males carrying the girl by her wrists and ankles and organized protests accusing the town known for its "Big Red" football team of covering up the involvement of more players.

Mark Cole, a teammate granted immunity for his testimony, said he recorded a video of Mays performing the act on the girl during a car ride between houses in Steubenville the night of the party, but deleted it the next morning.

"It was one of those moments when you realize you did something wrong or stupid," Cole said during testimony in which he also said he drank eight to 10 beers that night and his memory of the evening was foggy.

Evan Westlake, who also was granted immunity, testified he saw Richmond commit a sex act on the girl on the basement floor of a house the same night last August.

Mays and Richmond are accused of raping the girl when she was too drunk to move or speak. She told police she did not remember what happened, but reported the incident the next day after she heard details from friends. The boys have denied raping her and say any sex that happened was consensual.

Defense attorneys have questioned whether the witnesses in the case remembered details from the party or were repeating rumors that circulated afterward through their own social groups and from investigators looking into the rape allegations.

Lawyers for the boys say the victim had told friends in advance that she wanted to have sex with the players.

Prosecutors have argued the girl was too drunk to make a decision about her welfare and have introduced as evidence graphic text messages about the party and events afterward and two pictures that were recovered from mobile devices.

The juvenile charges against Mays and Redmond are being heard by visiting Judge Tom Lipps. If convicted, they could be required to stay at a juvenile detention facility until they turn 21 and then register as sex offenders.

Two Ohio high-school football players accused of raping a teenage girl may not get a fair trial after a photo and video allegedly associated with the case were posted on the Internet by the computer hacking group Anonymous, a lawyer for one of the accused said on Friday.

The players, both 16 and members of the Steubenville High School football team, are charged with raping a 16-year-old fellow student last August, according to statements from their attorneys to local and national media.

Their juvenile court trial is scheduled for February in Steubenville, a city of 19,000 about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh.

The case shot to national prominence this week when Anonymous activists made public a picture allegedly of the rape victim, being carried by her wrists and ankles by two young men, and of a video that showed several other young men joking about an alleged assault.

Walter Madison, the lawyer for one of the defendants said on CNN that his client was one of the young men in the photograph, but does not appear in the video.

But the picture "is out of context," Madison said. "That young lady is not unconscious," as has been widely reported.

"A right to a fair trial for these young men has been hijacked," Madison said, adding that social media episodes such as this have become a major threat to a criminal defendant's right to a fair trial.

"It's very, very serious and fairness is essential to getting the right decision here," he said.

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Adam Nemann, an attorney for the other defendant, could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday. In an interview on Thursday with Columbus, Ohio, broadcaster WBNS-10TV, Nemann raised concerns about the effect the Anonymous postings could have on potential witnesses in the case.

"This media has become so astronomically ingrained on the Internet and within that society, I am concerned witnesses might not want to come forward at this point. I would be surprised now, if there weren't witnesses now who might want to start taking the Fifth Amendment," Nemann told the station.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution offers protection against self-incrimination in criminal proceedings.

The case has also been a challenge for local officials because of conflicts of interest. Both the local prosecutor and police have close ties to the school that the defendants attend.

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As a result, the case is being investigated and prosecuted by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office.

Interviewed on CNN on Friday, DeWine said it was not unusual for his office to prosecute or investigate cases in small towns where close ties within the community caused conflicts of interest to arise.

He also voiced concern about how social media may affect the case.

"This case needs to be tried not in the media, not in social media," DeWine said.

He said Anonymous' attempt to shame the alleged attackers had actually harmed the victim.

Not only is the victim hurt by the initial crime, but "every time something goes up on the Internet, the victim is victimized again," DeWine said.

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