Posted on 05/06/2005 11:53:59 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
CLEVELAND (AP) - High school officials acted properly in taking three days to determine whether an alleged rape occurred between students before contacting authorities, police said.
Three teenage boys have been charged with raping a fellow special-education student who said he was attacked five straight days the week of April 18-22 at East Technical High School.
School officials became aware of the alleged rapes after a custodian saw sexual activity between students at the school's track on April 22.
Custodian Michael Savoy and principal Dale Laux reviewed surveillance videotape, but couldn't identify who was involved until later that night and couldn't determine whether it was rape or consensual sex, police Lt. Thomas Stacho said.
Laux notified officers assigned to the school on the following Monday, April 25, after interviewing the 17-year-old alleged victim.
"We had no allegation of rape" on April 22, school district spokesman Dan Minnich said Thursday.
But in Savoy's statement to police, he describes in detail sexual activity between two males with a third male hitting the victim in the head, according to a police report.
The Ohio Revised Code states that school employees who know or suspect an individual under 18 has suffered physical injury must report it to a children services agency or police.
Stacho said that if officials had believed it was a case of consensual sex, it was prudent for them to determine if there was a crime before calling police.
"Once they realized they had a crime, they reported it to us," he said.
According to a police report, a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old told the victim to go to the track and the 14-year-old raped him while the 15-year-old hit him on April 22.
The victim stated he was attacked three times at the track, once in a locker room and once in a bathroom that week, according to a school incident report.
One teen was charged with assault and five counts of rape. Two others were charged with rape and assault.
If found delinquent on the rape charges, they could be jailed until they're 21.
However, a teacher at the school, Sandra Harris, has questioned at least part of the accuser's claims. Harris has informed administrators that two students charged in attacks on April 18 and 19, along with the accuser, were in her classroom at those times, school district spokesman Alan Seifullah told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.
Cleveland East Tech, jeez! My father graduated from there in the early 30s.
can you say "white wash?"
Wonder if these three young men "met" Spokane, WA's mayor too?
Can you say "sick and perverted"?
This is a gang rape and these perverts are going to only get a few years?!
Future child rapists in training. Just get the rope and spare some other family the grief.
So, if it was consensual it's cool with the school???
Last weeks article: Special-Education Students Charged With Raping Classmate
Thanks!
This incident is separate from the Mifflin event of not so long ago.
Maybe there is something in the water in Ohio schools that makes certain folks a little loony, to say the least.
Since when is it the job of school officials to determine whether a crime has been committed? That's the job of the police! School admins should report incidents and let the police decide. But this police guy sounds like he'd rather not do his job.
Something doesn't add up here, I've been thinking.
Raped three times? I'm beginning to believe this was consensual. I wonder the mental handicap of the victim.
Many of us agreed that to label the victim mentally handicapped or disabled was to add the same label to the two sickos, as well.
The effects of a rampant liberal agenda are biting a lot of folks right where it hurts most, in the education of their children.
And the feds are tossing money at the public schools debacle like they are going out of style,, and maybe they should. ;-)
That the victim let someone hit him in the head makes it all the stranger. Either the victim allowed this, or the victim is so mentally challenged that he is not able to take care of himself, and in that case, he should not have been left alone.
doesn't add up.
Was I too harsh?
Yep, you are a homosexual rape fan, and that is wicked. He deserved a fair trial and a fast hanging.
This is the first time I've seen a police officer condone this typical practice of a school system. The schools want to cover it up whenever possible, keep it in house, do their own investigation and don't tell police unless it's a really grievous crime and, more likely, the gossip gets out and they can't keep the lid on any longer.
School and college crime statistics are woefully underreported.
Investigation of crime, including suspected or alleged crime, is the job of police.
The teachers' job, as defined in the first decade of the 21st Century, is teaching students how to lube up the boy next door.
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