(TotalConservative.com) – Five employees at a public school in Florida have been arrested for their failure to report a sexual assault at their school to police. Teachers are mandatory reporters, which means that if they have a suspicion that a child under their care is the victim of a crime, they have a legal obligation to report the allegations so they can be properly investigated. Instead of following the law, these public school workers decided they could arbitrate the matter themselves.
The five Palm Beach High School employees were arrested for failure to protect a child, a legal obligation as a part of their roles as public school officials. The arrests related to allegations from 2021 when a choir teacher was passed a note that suggested a girl had been assaulted by two boys in a bathroom at the school and she had threatened to commit suicide.
Instead of reporting the alleged assault to the police, as was his legal duty, he told a colleague at the school instead. In August 2021, the faculty held a meeting to discuss the assault. One of the alleged assailants is related to another school staff member, complicating the issue.
Assistant Principal Garcia, who is one of the arrestees, reportedly did not contact police due to their belief that the parents should be responsible for reporting the crime. Another staff member claimed to have performed his own investigation which resulted in his belief that no assault ever took place. One of the boys allegedly involved in the attack was disciplined anyway, being taken off of after-school activities. When asked why the boy was punished if they did not believe he was guilty staff members replied that they were “aware of how it looks.”
The principal of the school, Darren Edgecomb has been previously censured for reportedly changing students’ grades improperly. Edgecomb is currently on probation for that fiasco which began in 2022. He is not one of the five accused in this latest incident at his school, however. None of the accused are allowed contact with the victim or the alleged assailants. Edgecomb is only allowed to have professional contact as pertains to their scholastic responsibilities.
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