…when they didn’t themselves report a sexual assault as reported by a student? Here’s what the nine (9!) year old witness said he saw in a bathroom approximately three weeks ago last Friday:

• The boy walked into a bathroom on the way to the playground for recess and saw the back of a boy with his pants down “humping” [his word–he learned it from the activities of his dogs] a girl whose pants were pulled down. She was audibly crying. The back of her blonde head was all the witness reported seeing. The hair was down, he says. He could not identify her.
  
• The witness says the older student turned his head and told the younger boy if he reported him he would ‘kill him.’ The accused pervert thereupon grabbed for his pants and began reaching for something in his pocket.
  
• The witness ran to the playground and says he reported the incident to the adult on duty. The kid claims the ‘duty’ told him roughly, “You’re lying. Nothing like that happens here, now go play!” The witness did as he was told.

• When he got home from school he told his mom. There was no school on Monday so the mother tells the Victoria Taft Show on KPAM 860 that she waited till her husband had the day off on Wednesday so they could go together. The principal was not in the office so they and their son related the story to the school official in charge of discipline. The disciplinary staffer promised to bring the principal up to speed. She apparently didn’t.

A week and a half later the parents touched base with the principal to find out what she was doing about the sexual assault. She claimed ignorance. The upset parent and her son related the incident to the principal. The mother told me the principal was dismissive and continued to say, “Oh, really?” in a way which telegraphed disbelief. The principal promised to investigate it. She apparently did not. She did, however, pull the witness out of class and “interrogate” him, in the mother’s words. She believed the principal was attempting to intimidate her son into recanting the report. He did not, I’m told. The mother was angry about pulling her child out of class for an interrogation without consulting her or having another witness.
Three weeks after their initial report, the parents established that there was no “investigation” into the sexual assault so they took matters into their own hands. They called the Portland Police Bureau and DHS.
I emailed the principal and the school psychologist on Thursday night after hearing about this. I received no reply.
On Friday KPAM 860 spoke to PPB, DHS, school district and principal.
The principal told me no rape occurred at her school and she didn’t know what I was talking about but would get back to me. When I pressed the point of her not knowing if a sexual assault had taken place in a bathroom and what about the report that the parents had made she hung up on me. I was not intemperate. I was respectful and firm.
The school district spokesman told me he hadn’t heard the story and promised to look into it.
I spoke with the Portland Police Bureau which confirmed a report had been taken and forwarded to the PPB officers who oversee Beach Elementary. I asked if those officers assigned to the school had been notified before this. I was told they had not. In other words, the principal had not called in the very people who presumably would be conducting an investigation.
I spoke to DHS to double check on whether a report had been filed. That couldn’t be confirmed on Friday but I will check again today. However, the person with whom I related the story gasped a few times at how many school officials had failed to report the incident to authorities. Under Oregon law school officials are MANDATORY REPORTERS. The following is from the DHS website (see the whole list here):

Who are mandatory reporters?

School and child care personnel: Teachers, school personnel, educational advocates assigned to a child pursuant to the School Code, truant officers, directors and staff assistants of day care centers and nursery schools.

Three different school officials had been notified of a sexual assault and not one reported it.

Two post scripts: The mother told me she tried to buy a year book from school officials so she could have her son point out the older student. They refused to sell her one. If you go on the website here, school officials claim you can buy one. The kid eventually was ID’d.

2008-09 Middle school yearbooks now for sale!

The other follow up is that school officials claim the accused kid was actually in science class and that there’s no way he could have been in the bathroom at the time of the assault. The school says the science class is nowhere near the bathroom. The parent says the science class is right across the hall. She says she verified it with other school officials.

Even if you don’t believe the nine year old (why would he make this up?), you’ve still got three people who didn’t follow the law and report the alleged abuse.

If he is telling the truth you’ve got a blonde haired little girl out there who’s been sexually abused. Oh, and a potential rapist walking the halls of Beach (formerly Humboldt) Elementary School. Is everyone OK with that?

I think the principal, who’s got a gig in another city, has some ‘splainin to do.