Girl Raped in School, Principal Hides in Office

I am in shock. Back in March, a 16-year old, developmently delayed high school girl was dragged by a group of boys to the stage area of the high school auditorium, punched in the face, threatened, and then forced to perform oral sex on at least two of the boys while the acts were videotaped. When someone called for help, the group scattered.

The girl reported the incident to her Special Ed teacher, who reported it to school authorities. Another teacher called the girl's father who, when he came to the school, wanted to call police. An assistant principal twice tried to get him to not call police, stating that if the media got hold of the story, it might further traumatize his daughter. All the while, the principal was in her office, working on something really important: bell schedules. The father called police and took his daughter to the hospital. What happened to these geniuses who are supposed to be authority figures at that school? The principal was fired (and should never be allowed to set foot near a child again). The three assistant principals were given 10-day suspensions and transferred to other schools. Big frickin' deal. Each one should have been fired and criminally charged.

Let me tell you, if that had been my daughter, I would have gone berserk. Maybe not at the time, but the next day for sure. The staff at this school are as culpable as the boys who committed the crime. Why, you ask? Because by not immediately calling police, they condoned the act. Not only that, they violated Ohio law.

And after I had chewed large sections of administration behind, not to mention furniture and walls, I would have taken names of everyone involved, and taken the information to an attorney and filed civil lawsuits against the school district, the school, and each person individually. The one assistant principal was afraid of subjecting the girl to the media? BS! He was afraid of the publicity to the school and his failure as an assistant principal, a human being, and maybe as a man. He knew the administration had blundered big time when they didn't call the police right away and was trying to smooth things over. By covering up, he got more publicity than he would had he reported the crime to begin with.

Each of the assistant principals should be fired, (and I can think of numerous causes of action to fire them for derilection of duty, neglect of duty, failure to report a crime, child endangerment, criminal stupidity? to name a few), charged criminally for failure to report the crime, and then attempting to cover it up. Perhaps even as co-defendants in the rape case because they didn't report it. That one might not fly, but if it did and they were convicted, they (at least in Florida, I don't know about Ohio) they would have to register as sexual offenders and unable to ever teach again.

I might be a bit over the top, but I can't stress how beyond angry I am. When I first read about this, I had thoughts of ropes and tar and feathers. I finally settled down enough to entertain lawsuits. These people have no business being in charge of hamsters, much less children.