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In another horrific student incident, an Alexandria, Virginia, school district school board, superintendent, mayor, and the police have been outed for covering up a brutal sexual assault of a girl that left her hospitalized and then hid it from her parents.
The rape was reportedly committed by multiple assailants on high school grounds, according to the National Review. The attack is reminiscent of those in Loudoun County.
The Alexandria police confirmed to the Independent Women’s Forum in an email that they took into custody a 14-year-old suspect in early December for “aggravated sexua[l] battery, rape, and forcible sodomy” of a student on the Minnie Howard campus. The police won’t release further details because it involves minors. Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) chief of school and public relations Julia Burgos commented that “we are unable to provide information regarding specifics about students.”
A number of emails were unearthed via a Freedom of Information Act request concerning the sexual assault that occurred last October. Recipients of those emails included the Alexandria police, the mayor, school board members, and the superintendent. However, the parents weren’t included in the email distribution.
At what point do we hold bureaucrats criminally responsible for crimes they allow to happen by hiding information from parents and students? If school officials knew a school shooter was coming but didn’t prevent the attack or protect the kids there would be valid outrage.
— Sam💜 Free Julian Assange (@SamMoline1) March 18, 2022
“Parents had zero communication regarding this incident. This crime should scare parents. If parents knew what had happened, parents could have necessary talks with their children and pressure the school to increase safety,” Molly Kaiman, who is an Alexandria City Public Schools parent, angrily stated. She also said she feels “misled, angry, [and] scared” because the information was hidden from parents.
“The emails were exchanged just days before a joint board-council hearing focused on reinstating school resource officers to the city’s school campuses, after a previous school-board decision removing the police generated controversy,” National Review reports.
National Review went on to reveal more details of the cover-up:
Around the halfway point in that six-hour-long meeting, in response to a question from a council member who wanted an “overview” of the incidents that had occurred in the schools, several were listed without much detail — including “a potential sexual assault that is being investigated.” This aside amounted to the only public notification of the rape requiring hospitalization to parents, who continued sending their kids to Minnie Howard and other Alexandria schools without critical information about student safety.
The school board, superintendent, and mayor had made the apparent decision to withhold the full scope of the details while families all over the state were swarming contentious school-board meetings on topics ranging from transparency and curriculum to their children’s safety at school.
On October 6, 2021, ACPS Superintendent Gregory Hutchings sent an email to the nine-member ACPS school board with the subject “Potential Sexual Assault.” The body of the email contained few details but did say (brackets mine), “FYI there is a potential sexual assault of a student by other students this afternoon at MH [Minnie Howard]. The student has been taken to the hospital and APD [Alexandria Police Department] is working through the investigation. No more details at this time.” In turn, the chairwoman of the school board, Meagan Alderton, notified Mayor Justin Wilson and all city councilors.
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A parent got wind of the assaults and sent an email to city officials demanding confirmation of the Minnie Howard sexual assault and several other violent incidents.
“I don’t want to uproot [my daughter] but I’m tired of the violence and so is every parent I know,” the parent wrote.
Instead of listening to parents, @ACPSk12 officials block parents. pic.twitter.com/n3FlqZBclO
— Julie Gunlock (@JGunlock) March 18, 2022
At that point, Police Chief Hayes was forced to admit that a sexual assault had occurred at the school and that it was under investigation. He would not go further than that, however, with the anguished parent.
“Any sexual assault that occurs on school property should never be considered ‘business as usual’ or it will be viewed as sweeping it under the rug,” Jennifer Rohrbach, another mother, said.
Virginia Democrats attempted to pass a law last year that would prevent serious crimes from being reported if they could be classified as misdemeanors. That would include sexual battery.
A new law, however, reverses that and will require that parents be notified of such crimes in their children’s schools. They must be informed of their rights to press charges. That bill passed both houses and is now waiting to be signed by the governor.
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