School suspends boys for sexual assault- doesn't notify police

Parent Cafe
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<p><a href=“http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/321075_assault23.html[/url]”>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/321075_assault23.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Contacted Saturday, Rainier Beach principal Robert Gary Jr. was not aware of the police report, but said the incident was investigated by school administration. He would not say what discipline the student’s faced, citing school privacy rules</p>

<p>hes the principal- shouldn’t he be doing the follow up?
The school has less than 450 students- which is about how many students each counselor has in the larger high schools. Was he too busy?</p>

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<p>How awful. I don’t get why some schools act as though they simply don’t think it’s a crime for male students to sexually assault girls. What do they think the purpose of girls being in school is?</p>

<p>I hope there are serious consequences for the adults in the school who knew what happened and tried by omission to prevent the girl from getting protection and justice under the law.</p>

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<p>School authorities are supposed to be mandated reporters- if they suspect any sort of harm being done to a student- they have to notify child protective services
I expect it will come out that the boys involved were athletes or some such.</p>

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<p>Our son’s school expelled a boy for sexually assaulting a girl on the bus but I highly doubt the police were contacted. Private school and influential family? No way! I’m sure he’ll be back in the Fall.</p>

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<p>I wonder if the boys involved were certified special education students? I have heard some major frustration from educators regarding students who can get away with just about anything due to their particular certification. EI kids seem to be the ones administrators say they can’t hold accountable for their unacceptable behavior. Because everything seems to be privacy-protected, no one knows the truth about anything … but it does seem that some kids are getting away with things they should not be, and their special ed status gets the blame.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/321228_assault26.html[/url]”>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/321228_assault26.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I don’t think they were special ed students. The boys have now been expelled. It’s very, very difficult to expel special ed students for behavior if a case can be made that the behavior is related to the disability. Even though the expulsion just a formality (since school is over), I don’t think that there’s been enough time to go through all the steps that would have been needed for even a symbolic expulsion.</p>

<p>But NOW that there’s been negative publicity, the school district has decided that what happened to the young woman deserves some investigation.</p>

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<p>failure to report child abuse is a felony in Texas.</p>

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<p>its not here apparently- but this case really bothers me.
Notifying the police- wasn’t going to spread the boys names on the front page, but it would show that we care about what happens to our students and when a girl reports an assault, that she is taken seriously.</p>

<p>This district has a history of not reporting to police serious incidents, at least one resulted in a boy being murdered by classmates
<a href=“http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/169393_jasmer16.html[/url]”>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/169393_jasmer16.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>really- what does it take to realize that they are accountable to the public and to their students?</p>

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<p>I was just re-reading an article about a first year Seattle high school teacher, who was trying to get kids to understand how offensive words could be by saying the “n” word. ( they commonly use the word “gay” to be derogatory & he was trying to get them to stop)</p>

<p>The NAACP tried to get him fired- for using an admittedly offensive word. But what group is advocating for this girl? </p>

<p>We have some control over what messages we are sending to kids, by not turning the other way when they harrass others-
some studies show
80% of girls report being harrassed.
<a href=“http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/[/url]”>http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/&lt;/a&gt;
research/sexharass.shtml</p>

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<p>“its not here apparently- but this case really bothers me.”</p>

<p>No, it is here too em. You just are in a crappy district. My spouse has to report anything that’s of concern to her prinicipal. The prinicipal’s duties are then to deal with the situation and decide if cps or the police should be involved. She’s had some issues this year and suspensions were handed out. </p>

<p>I think in this case the RB prinicipal might be in some trouble at the end of the day or at least who had the information and didn’t forward it. That’s probably what’s next is walking back over the trail and finding where it broke down.</p>

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<p>kelsmom, We have seen exactly what you have stated.</p>

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<p>no I realize that there is a mandate to report- I just didn’t see what the stipulations were for adults who didn’t report.
Criminal offenses have to be reported to police
<a href=“http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/[/url]”>http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/&lt;/a&gt;
research/sexharass.shtml</p>

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<p>Today is the farewall party for the superintendent- I hope this doesn’t get lost in the transition</p>

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<p>An article today detailing how difficult it is to obtain information about crimes committed in the schools also mentioned that this girl who reported that she was raped at the end of the school year- is also developmentally disabled.</p>

<p>This infuriates me even more than I was before.
Her assailants were suspended for three days… after school was out for the year. :p</p>

<p>[Two</a> years of district databases list more than 1,000 violent incidents — including assaults, threats, robberies and weapons possession — that don’t appear to have been reported to police. But the district’s record-keeping is so spotty that it’s difficult to know for sure.](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003909382_schoolsafety28m.html]Two”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003909382_schoolsafety28m.html)</p>

<p>[even though I was the victim of a high $$$ property crime during the hours while school activities were going on, I was never contacted by the school or district- and the office staff acted put out because I asked to use their phone to call police](<a href=“http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/333337_schoolcrime27.html”>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/333337_schoolcrime27.html&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

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<p>Washington has some serious issues regarding many areas of criminal behavior. Light sentences are the rule. Sex offenders are not effectively monitored. The care system for wards of the state is riddled with idiots who would not know an abuser if they grabbed their privates.</p>

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<p>In many schools, girls get sexually assaulted often and the school does nothing. Or it punishes the girls of the school in some way, e.g. creating new dress code rules about shorts/skirt length, as my middle school did.</p>

<p>Sexual assault covers a wide spectrum of offenses, and it sounds like this one was at the severe end of the scale. Had it been less so, I have to wonder if they would have done anything at all.</p>