School waits 5 days to report serial child rapist to authorities, what should be done (NSFW)

The school knowingly knew this child was at risk for further sexual abuse and did nothing to intervene. How are they not violating law?

This poor little girl clearly cried out for help to more than one person, and one was even a supposedly trusted adult. They have failed her, she continued to suffer because of her parent and school’s negligence. Any professional dealing with children has a duty to report. Not just to the school office for god’s sake.

This sickens me. I hope there are serious repercussions for this girl’s school and for her mother.

Whoever the teacher reported it to should be arrested and charged with a crime. And the School SUperintendent should be fired for defending the administrators.

Mandatory reporting means now, not next week. Family Services everywhere I know of has 24 hour reporting ability.

School policy? It’s the law, forget policy. Not reporting puts their licenses or ability to teach in question. What I don’t know is if it is enough the teacher told the office. I have a feeling the teacher is still responsible. Maybe she should have called the authorities herself, and let her boss know what is happening, instead of relying on them to do the right thing. Or, at minimum the teacher should have followed up to make sure something had been done either that day or the next morning.

How long does it take to pick up a phone and call child services?!?!

Unbelievable.

Everyone from the person that the teacher reported to up to the superintendent and school board needs to be fired and the superintendent probably should be criminally charged.

Here’s an example of common sense and the law gone awry.

The school superintendent and all of the administrators between him and the teacher will swear up and down that they followed the law, and they very likely did – technically.

However, this reminds me of something that I saw last week on a construction jobsite. The contractor has a Safety Manual (which I was in Malaysia to audit). In the manual they have a “Fire Rescue Process Flow Chart”. I actually laughed out loud when I first read it. Here are the process boxes:

“Occurrence of fire”. Okay, sure. Fire occurs to start this process.

“Discovered”. No problems yet.

“Notify Contractor’s Safety Officer”. Here’s where they start to go off the rails.

“Notify Safety Manager”. Definitely off the rails.

In a side branch (parallel, but obviously secondary): “Notify Fire Brigade (if necessary)”

Under the “Safety Manager” box is “Conduct Site and Contractors Fire Fighting Organization”.

Do you see the problem? It’s pretty obvious if you look at this paper chart. There’s too much goddamn bureaucracy! Too many decision points. Too many people to “notify” before anything is actually done. This was why I joked with the contractor’s Safety Manager that by the time he makes a decision whether or not to call the site fire brigade, half of Malaysia could be in flames. (It’s a small country, after all.)

Here’s how you fight a fire: Notice fire. If it’s small enough to hit with a broom or a nearby fire extinguisher and put out, then do that. Otherwise “Sound the Alarm”.

Two steps.

The law needs to be changed so that the teacher is required to call the police and notify school administrators in a parallel and secondary path.

PS: This is actually a pretty good contractor.

This in my book is criminal negligence.

What should be done? I have no idea. Something needs to be done, but what can be done without hurting the other students. If you sue them you take money away from the school and then others kids education will suffer, the same goes if you start dismissing people or closing down schools.

@CWOTUS I thought that was the law, the teacher has an obligation to report it. I don’t think the law says the teacher has an obligation to report it to her boss. Maybe company/school policy is to tell her boss, but as far as I know, she still has the burden of making sure it gets reported to the authorities. I could be wrong. This is similar to the Sandusky case I think where people knew, told the higher ups, and nothing was reported. The people who knew still knew, they are culpable of allowing it to continue, and for going allong with senior managment, against the law. I don’t know if anyone who knew about what was going on was convicted of crimes, I didn’t follow the case closely.

I liked your example by the way.

That is a disgusting case of criminal negligence! The teacher should have either called it in herself, or made sure the office person made the phone call. Both the teacher and the person in the office who failed to call it in the same day should be sent to prison for accessory to rape.

Do these laws say who these events should be reported to?

@poisonedantidote I think the mother and whoever was responsible for reporting it to CPS at the school should be sitting in the cell next to the SOB that did the deed.

Not holding them accountible because it may hurt a child’s education, IMO is not an option. They are culpable of enabling a child rapist if nothing else, they are not fit to be responsible for one child let alone a whole school full.

@wundayatta I found this website, that seems like it should say specifically what is mandated, but I haven’t gone through it all to try to see specifically if a teacher has the obligation to follow through themselves in calling social services. It seems like the site should have that info. If you don’t mind glancing at it, maybe you will find the info.

It seems there are mandatory reporters (certain job titles) and in most states, there is a hotline to call in order to make a mandatory report. There is some issue about whether mandatory reporters must also give their identity.

I don’t know if the OP example is in a state with a hotline or some other reporting system. But if it’s a hotline, then it seems like protocol may not have been followed here. Of course, it’s just a news report, and who knows what reporters know.

@wundayatta there are several hotlines available, both locally and statewide. I don’t know about the school in question, but the school I work for has them prominently posted in the teacher’s lounge.