Another 15-year-old girl was reportedly sexually assaulted in the girl’s restrooms at a school. This time, the alleged victim is the one the school disciplined. Even after the accused boy addmited to the crime, her mother claims.
That’s exactly what a report by Vice claims happened to one teen at a North Carolina High School:
The student, who is not named in the report by WBTV, told the outlet that she was routinely harassed by a male student at Hawthorne Academy of Health Sciences in Charlotte, North Carolina. One day, she said, “He would, like, come into the bathroom and he would push me into the stall.”
“He put his hands in my pants and then he was, like, touching my breasts,” continued the student, who is 15.
After she reported the classmate to the school, officials contacted local police, according to WBTV. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department ended up pressing charges against a juvenile for sexual battery in connection to the report, a police spokesperson told the outlet.
But school administrators suspended the student for what they said was a filing a false report, WBTV reported.
“The child who did this to my daughter admitted to the police that he, in fact, did sexually assault her in a bathroom at the school,” the student’s mother told the outlet. “The school did their investigation, gave me a phone call and said, ‘Hey, look, unfortunately it looks like there’s no evidence that what your daughter’s saying took place did. We’re gonna have to give her a day of suspension.’”
The mother said she asked Hawthorne Academy’s principal, “If the police are telling me that he did do these things, he admitted to them, and that I have the right to press charges, you’re telling me this didn’t happen?”
A local WBTV reporter has tried to get answers but school officials refuse to answer questions. Recently, Nick Ochsner with the news outlet posted footage of school board officials practically running away from him as he tries to pin one down for questioning:
Yesterday we reported on a @CharMeckSchools student who was suspended after reporting a sexual assault (Story https://t.co/VvqnwRsujc)
Today we tried to ask CMS board members @MargaretMarsh84 @elysedashew @JenniferforCMS if that was acceptable. They wouldn't answer #ncpol #nced pic.twitter.com/skPxWC3VAT
— Nick Ochsner (@NickOchsnerWBTV) November 2, 2021
At the time of this report, none of the officials had taken steps to explain the board’s position on the disciplinary actions taken against the victim. Really, though, how are they going to defend punishing the victim of sexual assault for reporting the crime?
Erica Carlin is an independent journalist, opinion writer and contributor to several news and opinion sources. She is based in Georgia.
