Posted on 04/14/2005 7:54:43 AM PDT by Eagle of Liberty
Mifflin High principal fired
Official should have called police after sexual assault on student, board says
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Bill Bush THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The Columbus Board of Education fired a high-school principal last night who failed to call police after learning that a female student had been sexually assaulted by four male students last month in the school auditorium.
The board voted unanimously to place Regina Crenshaw on unpaid leave from her $95,300-a-year post at Mifflin High School starting today and to begin terminating her contract.
Crenshaw could not be reached after the meeting.
Three assistant principals — Vincent Clarno, Suzie Retterer-Helfrich and Richard Watson — were given 10-day, unpaid suspensions and will be assigned to other schools when they return.
"We were very concerned about the actions that were taken — or lack of actions that were taken — by the administrative team, and particularly the principal," Superintendent Gene Harris said.
The parents, police, Franklin County Children Services and district administrators should have been notified immediately, Harris said, with the order depending on the situation.
"Our administrators must use some common sense," Harris said. "There are some situations where the first entity that would be notified would be the lawenforcement agency."
On March 9, a 16-year-old girl told school officials she had been sexually assaulted by four male students in the Mifflin auditorium. The girl’s father had to call the police himself and take his daughter, who is developmentally disabled, to Grant Medical Center.
Police said that the assault occurred about 1:15 p.m., and that her father was at the Northeast Side school, 3245 Oak Spring St., by about 2:30 p.m. Detective Mary Harrison, of the Columbus police sex-abuse squad, said an investigative report will be turned over to prosecutors within two weeks.
bbush@dispatch.com
Richard Watson, one of the Assistant Principals, has not been fired, even though he obstructed justice.
Here is the contact info for the Columbus Board of Education:
Terry Boyd** E-mail tboyd@columbus.k12.oh.us 5646 Concord Hill Drive, 43213 Phone: 341-6368 Fax: 365-8478
Jeff Cabot ** E-mail jeffcabot@sbcglobal.net 258 Winthrop Road, 43214 Jeff Cabot, Attorney at Law 60 East Broad Street, 43215-3549 Phone: 461-8103 Fax: 461-8105
Betty Drummond* E-mail bdrumm4573@aol.com 5742 Jardin Place, 43213 Phone: 864-4407 Fax: 365-5605
Andrew J. Ginther * E-mail aginther@triumphcomm.com 12 Hanford Street, 43206 Phone: 378-8836 Fax: 365-6426
Loretta Heard * E-mail lheard@columbus.k12.oh.us 1440 Country Club Road, 43227 Phone: 864-8477 Fax: 365-5691
Stephanie Hightower ** E-mail shightow@columbus.k12.oh.us 223 Woodland Avenue, 43203 Phone: 253-0886 Fax: 365-8454
Karen Schwarzwalder ** E-mail kschwarz@columbus.k12.oh.us 1620 East Broad Street, Unit 1503, 43203 Phone: 372-0062 Fax: 258-8880
The three assistant principals need to be fired too, not just transferred. What do they think this is, the American Catholic Church under Bernard Law?
That is unacceptable.
That oughta be a crime, too.
Glenn Beck has been discussing this on his morning radio show for the past hour.
"Three assistant principals — Vincent Clarno, Suzie Retterer-Helfrich and Richard Watson — were given 10-day, unpaid suspensions and will be assigned to other schools when they return.
I believe in education circles it's called, "passing the trash."
The story is coming out rather indirectly, then.
This amounts to a gang-rape of a developmentally disabled female adolescent, by four male adolescents.
The rape occurred. Apparently, nobody disputes that.
But what happened afterward? The school officials interceded, trying to prevent the parents of the female adolescent from going to the police authorities to report this crime.
But the perpertators involved were all minors, so far as can be determined.
The school officials were soft-pedaling this as a "discipline problem".
But was any actual discipline ever applied?
Apparently not. But then, this was not a simple prank like throwing firecrackers in the hall, or water balloons at a school dance.
Violent physical harm was done to a person of limited capacity to resist intimidation.
Those boys would have been expelled for pulling wings off flies. But a physical assault on a female is OK?
Makes me wonder how many times this type of thing has happened at this school in the past and has gone unreported?
Where would children learn decency these days?
A woman talking to Glenn Beck said she called the school today and whoever she talked to stated that there was no rape, rattled off a phone number for her to call to voice her complaints and hung up on her!
Makes me wonder how many times this type of thing has happened at this school in the past and has gone unreported?
Locals from other schools dont call it "Miff'n" for nothing. It doesnt have a good reputation outside of that school district.
Yup...listening. He's doing an awesome job. I particularly liked his "Richard Watson" song.
BTW, the number for Richard Watson is 614-365-5466.
Wanted to keep those at FR who are cubicle-bound w/o radios up-to-date.
If it's a very large school, no. I went to high school years ago and we had at least three. We didn't have them in middle school though. Just one principal.
Which makes you wonder doesn't it? Why does a school today need three vice principals when most schools operate under "zero-tolerance"? These people don't have to use a modicum of judgement in dealing with students. They just hide behind zero-tolerance. Why are they getting the big bucks? But I digress.
This place sounds more like a snake pit than a school.
Subhuman.
My bet is that fromer principal Regina is of the minority persuasion and that this fact, in inself, has always been sufficient to cover any lapse in judgment. The assistant principals had damn well better do what she says, or else.
Anyone have facts on the race of the vic, perps, Regina and the members of the Board? IIRC, Jesse Jackson took a break from procreating several years back and went to Columbus to help settle down unrest over the fact that the city cops had shot several brothers.
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