@BillRM,
I think the point is the school really shouldn't have evaluated or handled this case by themselves at all--they should have turned it over to the proper people to investigate--they should have called a child abuse hotline.
Quote:Erring on side of caution advised for mandatory reporters
Serious allegations should be hotlined, prosecutor says.
Aug. 19, 2011
Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson can't say whether the Republic School District did anything wrong in the circumstances surrounding the alleged sexual assault of a student.
But he is weighing in on what the law requires and how officials encourage mandated reporters to handle serious allegations of assault.
A federal lawsuit has been filed against the Republic School District, claiming a female student was repeatedly harassed, sexually assaulted and raped -- once and then again after reporting the earlier alleged abuse to school officials.
Attorneys for the girl argue school officials failed to protect her and failed to comply with the state's mandatory reporting law when they did not call the state hotline after being told of the assaults.
"It would be out of place to comment on what, if anything, the school did. I wouldn't know," Patterson said.
But speaking in general terms, he said, this type of scenario is an example of the questions that surround what is required of a mandated reporter.
Patterson said authorities have depended on the Children's Division, which maintains the hotline and investigates allegations, to determine what constitutes an incident that should be reported.
He said the Children's Division interprets the law to mean that an incident involving only children doesn't fall under a mandated call.
But, he cautions, Children's Division policy -- and that of local criminal justice officials -- is that a serious allegation should be turned over to authorities and hotlined.
"Err on the side of caution and make the hotline," Patterson said.
Talking with child victims or witnesses is a difficult and psychologically loaded issue, he said.
Mandated reporters aren't required to fix the situation or to step in. Really, Patterson said, all a mandated reporter is required to do is listen and make a phone call.
"It's not your job to investigate the case," Patterson said. "Just let them talk and just ask them questions to ensure the child is immediately safe."
Beyond that, proper authorities should be brought in, like officials from the Child Advocacy Center, he said. Those interviewers are specifically trained in how to interview and interact with children properly in light of serious issues.
He said sometimes well-meaning officials complicate a situation when they start asking questions.
Patterson said small things like the environment can affect how children interpret the situation.
Even something as small as being called to a principal's office to talk can signal to a child that he or she is in trouble, he said.
"There's all kinds of things that can affect an interview," he said.
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20110819/NEWS01/108190341/0/ENTERTAINMENT12/?odyssey=nav%7Chead
Quote:Hard to prosecute one party for under the age of consent sex when both are under that age.
The issue really isn't whether to prosecute. The issue is that a minor reported being sexually abused to school officials, and she remained in a situation (being in school) where she was being subjected to being near the person she accused of the abuse and who had continued opportunity to abuse her.
Given that she is a minor, and one with special needs, the primary concern should be the safety and welfare of the girl--which is why the school should have called a hotline immediately, or referred this to The Child Advocacy Center, to let them investigate and decide what to do. As a minor, the girl cannot consent to sexual acts, and she was complaining to the school about them, saying they were unwanted. The school had no business making any sort of judgment call about the girl's allegations--she was reporting child sexual abuse to them, and that's not something that school officials should deal with on their own. And they handled the situation very badly and that may have put the girl in continued jeopardy the following school year which resulted in her (again) being raped.
Quote:Prosecutors and protestors examine actions of Republic school officials toward rape allegations
August 18, 2011
By Emily Rittman, Ben Knaup
Republic, Mo — Protestors are joining the controversy surrounding a lawsuit filed against members of the Republic R-III School District. They are calling for school officials to resign or be removed from their positions after a student with special needs says she was raped twice. The former student says she was punished for reporting the rape and asked to write an apology letter to her accused rapist.
Under Missouri law, teachers are mandatory reporters. They are required to report child abuse to the appropriate authorities. Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson says the law appears to have some inconsistencies when the person accused of abusing a child is also a juvenile.
Patterson says the school did not violate the state's mandated reporter law because an adult wasn't involved in the alleged rape. “It was not meant to apply to crimes committed among juveniles,” Patterson said. In serious cases involving juveniles abusing other children, Patterson says officials should make a hotline call to err on the side of caution. “Perhaps in this case it could have helped by facilitating an earlier meeting with the Child Advocacy Center so that interview would not have been performed by non-forensic trained interviewers,” Patterson said.
“Whoever they disclose to, should make that child feel comfortable, safe and listen,” Patterson said. “It is not the role under our protocol, for either school officials or even the initial responding law enforcement officer to interview that child.”
“Something has got to be done with our school system in Republic,” resident and mandated reporter Casey Crump said. Crump works with children at a facility in the Ozarks that is not affiliated with Republic schools. She wants the Republic superintendent; middle school principal, middle school counselor and a school resource officer involved removed from their positions. “They've shown that they are not capable of taking care and protecting our children,” Crump said.
Crump says she is outraged by the claims in the lawsuit. A former student says the first time she reported a rape, school officials interrogated her causing her to recant or change her story, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also claims the following year the girl reported being raped again by the same boy in the back of the library. Her mother took the girl to the Child Advocacy Center. Her attorneys say a safe exam confirmed she was raped and linked DNA to the boy in question who has since pleaded guilty. “If they would have handled it properly the first time it never would have happened the second time,” Crump said.
Protestors plan to gather at 5:00 Monday night at the next school board meeting. They then plan to go over to the Republic City Council meeting and protest there.
If prosecutors had decided school officials had violated the law, Patterson says the time limit has expired to file a misdemeanor charge for failing to report. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, failure to report is classified as a misdemeanor in 39 States including Missouri. In Missouri, a misdemeanor charge must be filed within one year of committing of the crime.
http://articles.kspr.com/2011-08-18/report-child-abuse_29903414
While the school might not have violated the mandatory reporting law, they definitely did not show appropriate judgment in how they handled this matter. Maybe they were trying to cover-up what was going on at the school--sexual activity, lack of proper security and supervision, etc., in order to protect themselves. But, they should have called a hotline and gotten the proper people involved. Instead, they dealt with this themselves in an awful manner (expelling the girl, etc) that also resulted in the continued sexual abuse of this child by another student. That might well make them liable for damages in the civil suit.
But it is good that the civil suit is bringing all of this out into the open. Let the community see who is running their schools and what sorts of decisions these people are making.
(at him, not you.)
