Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson, the brand-new superintendent of Seattle schools, has a slam-dunk opportunity to set a tone for her new tenure. I hope she uses it.
At issue is an incident this month at Rainier Beach High School, wherein a female student was allegedly sexually assaulted. As the P-I described it:
"The victim was in class June 4 when a boy in the class "put his hands on her chest," according to [police]. The victim told police she walked to the hallway, where he continued to harass her, then he cornered her and unzipped her shirt. When the boy did not stop, she hit him and told him to leave her alone, the police report said.
"The victim told police she was pushed about 15 feet into the men's bathroom where another boy was washing his hands. One boy watched the door while the other forced her into a bathroom stall and sexually assaulted her, according to the police report, then she forced her way out of the bathroom and later that day told an adult who contacted school officials the next morning."
So what did school officials do? They suspended the boys for three days. Case over.
Until three weeks later, when the girl herself reported the incident to police, something school officials are supposedly required to do immediately.
Why didn't they? Nobody's saying.
"The situation was investigated and dealt with," said Rainier Beach principal Robert Gary Jr. in the same P-I report.
No, Mr. Gary, it wasn't. Sexual assault is not the same as shooting spitballs in study hall. School authorities can "investigate and deal with" spitballs. Sexual assault, even if the alleged victim is "only" a high school student, is a serious crime. Police are competent to investigate and deal with it. School administrators aren't.
Oddly enough, once the police report was filed the school suddenly changed its mind and "expelled" the boys involved - three days after the last day of the school. Some punishment. The district called their pointless expulsion "a formality that will allow district officials and police time to investigate."
Odd. I didn't realize that for Seattle schools, sexual assault in a school bathroom has a statute of limitations that runs out in a few weeks. Makes a lot of sense for a crime in which victims, especially young ones (like, you know, high school students) often don't come forward immediately.
Meanwhile, can't you just see the clear, unambiguous signal such discipline sent to the guys' buddies? "Hey, dawgs! We got after this b-- and got out of school a few days early for the summer!" "Awesome!"
And the even clearer message it sent to the girls? "Get raped - see your attackers back in class in three days, bragging to their friends."
State law requires school officials to report suspected sexual assault incidents to police. It's district policy to call the cops whenever a crime has been committed on school grounds.
District discipline guidelines call for "long term suspension, monitored attendance and appropriate counseling" for first-time sexual assault offenders. These guys got three days. A slap on the wrist? More like a high-five.
Strangely enough, the same sort of thing happened a month earlier at Ballard High, when a student threatened in class to kill another student, and the victim, not school officials, wound up filing a police report.
Seattle school officials seem to have a hard time taking their students seriously.
And this is where Dr. Goodloe-Johnson comes in.
She can set a tone for her tenure immediately by sweeping away the butt-covering posturing of principals and district spokes-creatures, and making it clear that such nonsense won't be tolerated. The message goes further than school procedure when faced with discipline and security issues. It goes: we care about our students. Malfeasance will not be tolerated. School administrators and staff are answerable to me. We will run a tight ship.
High school, as most people who've been through it will attest, is hell. In Seattle it's complicated by the chronic underfunding of our schools and the wide disparity in community support between prosperous North End schools and academic stepchildren like Rainier Beach. In that environment, "stuff" is going to happen. As the Ballard incident demonstrates, stuff also happens in the better-funded, "nice" schools.
But treating major alleged crimes as minor disciplinary issues soon forgotten is inexcusable. Heads should roll over this. This doesn't have to be the way our schools are run, and Dr. Goodloe-Johnson should do something about it. Quickly.
Seattle writer and activist Geov Parrish's column runs every other week in the Capitol Hill Times. Reach him at editor@capitolhilltimes.com.
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