According to investigators, the young girl was attending the homecoming dance, and at some point went outside, or was taken outside. She was found unconscious behind the high school, in a dimly lit alley, under a bench, later that night.
The girl was allegedly raped by at least 4 suspects, who committed multiple sex acts on her. She was flown by helicopter to a local hospital where she was admitted in critical condition, and now remains there in stable condition as of the last report.
One nineteen-year-old boy, a former student of the high school, was arrested the same night of the incident after he was spotted fleeing the scene. He was charged with rape, robbery, and kidnapping. Another boy, 15 years of age, was later arrested and also charged with one count of felony sexual assault. The police have stated that more are expected to be arrested and charged soon.
After police did some investigating, they have come to the conclusion that this was most likely a two and a half hour assault on this young girl. Not to mention, they claim as many as 20 people could have been involved or stood and watched the incident take place. There is now a $20,000 reward for anyone who comes forward with information that will lead to arrests and convictions.
One member of the school board feels as if the school district bears some responsibility. He claims the administrators were not watching the area and the students as they should have. I have to agree with him. This had to be a very noisy commotion going on outside. Granted, the administrators were probably inside where the dance was taking place, but you would think someone in charge would keep track of the students coming in and out, and pay attention to what they were doing outside.
The article didn't make reference to whether there are any houses around the school, however, for this to go on for two and a half hours without anyone hearing anything seems unbelievable. This poor girl will most likely never want to set foot in that school again.
I can't imagine this happening to my own daughter. Having to explain to her that there are just really horrible people out there that do these unspeakable things for nothing more than to seek pleasure. But, what is more disturbing is that there were people, probably students, just standing around watching this happen. And I bet every one of them had cell phones! We really need to teach the our children to help those in need.
The school did hold a safety meeting on Wednesday night for parents and students to address the assault that took place. Hopefully, they will make new policies that will keep staff members more aware of what is going on at the school, ways to deter students from making bad choices like these boys did, and most importantly helping students know how to stay safe when they're attending school functions, or anywhere for that matter.
We need to have safety meetings like these in all schools across the nation, but rather, safety prevention meetings, to catch this before the fact instead of after. I was proud, however, to know that MSSU has held these types of classes. Classes that are designed to give self-defense techniques that will help in these kinds of cases.
In the junior high and high school levels, they do need more safety precautions enforced by staff members that is backed up by parents. Unfortunately, things like this happen before we notice there is a real problem.
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