Sexual Assault Cases At TN Elementary Schools Not Being Reported In Violation Of Title IX Law
Image Credit: Jinx Etling / WindRanch /CC
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
According to several sources, 3 separate sexual assault cases that occurred within the Wilson County Schools (WCS) district were not reported to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) even though every teacher and administrator is a mandatory reporter.
Wilson County Schools policy states:
“Every Wilson County School employee is a mandated reporter under state law. Any person with reasonable cause to believe a child is being abused or neglected must, under the law, immediately report to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services or to local law enforcement. The reporter can remain anonymous. Failure to report abuse is a violation of the law and a Class A misdemeanor, carrying a sentence of up to three months imprisonment, a fine or both. Those who report and “act in good faith” are immune from any civil or criminal charges which may result. The reporter has the right to remain confidential and anonymous.”
One mother who spoke to The Tennessee Conservative told us that her elementary aged daughter was propositioned for sex by another child in the same grade in a restroom stall at the end of August. Her daughter was missing for more than half an hour and she wasn’t notified until 4 hours after the incident. She immediately went to the elementary school to pick up her child “because this was completely out of character and behavior for my daughter and I knew something wasn’t right.”
Once home, her daughter disclosed what had happened by writing it down on paper because she was very distressed by the events of the day. According to her daughter, the other child had arranged to meet her in a bathroom stall to engage in acts of a sexual nature. Her daughter proposed a game of Rock Paper Scissors hoping to win so that she could get out of doing anything inappropriate with the other child.
The Wilson County mother stated that the incident had still not been reported to DCS almost two weeks later and was never reported by anyone at the school, even though every school principal in Wilson County acts as the Child Abuse Coordinator for their school. When WCS Director of Schools, Jeff Luttrell, was informed about what had happened – including being shown the note that her daughter wrote about the incident – he allegedly said that it was under investigation but sources claim that this is false and the case was never investigated by the school either internally or through reporting to DCS. The mother of the victim ended up calling DCS and reporting the incident herself on September 12th.
During this time, the victim was never given any counseling by the school and the school’s counselor did not even know about the incident until after DCS showed up to the school to conduct their investigation. DCS ended up conducting a forensic interview with both of the children involved in the August 30th incident.
Title IX policies have also been ignored in at least 2 cases.
One mother whose child was involved in a complaint was not told of the incident in which her child was allegedly involved until after 6 months had passed, violating policy that states that all known parties are to receive written notice of a complaint within 24 hours (on business days.) According to sources, this mother was then charged $500 to get her child’s records from the school that pertained to the complaint.
The mother we spoke to received a call from Lauren Bush, attorney and Deputy Director of Student Services for WCS on September 14th, during which she stated that she had a Title IX investigator on the line. This was a full two weeks since the incident had occurred.
Lauren Bush has since left her position with WCS for an opportunity with the Tennessee Department of Education.
The Tennessee Conservative reached out to Jeff Luttrell for a statement. The Wilson County Schools Public Information Officer, Bart Barker, replied making reference to a school board meeting video stating, “I believe our County Attorney, Mike Jennings made some comments on the video regarding this. Other than the fact that we investigate all Title IX complaints, we have nothing further to add at this time.”
Luttrell’s contract as Director of Schools is on the agenda at the next school board meeting in November, where members of the board will discuss extending his contract before it ends in two years. Luttrell currently makes $170,000 a year, plus other perks.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
It would seem to me a citizen’s arrest would be in order. The mother certainly has a case for child abuse among other things. It gets very tiresome and annoying to see these things slip by with no punishment for the criminals who fail to obey the law. The Feds were quick to call parents who protested at school meetings “domestic terrorists” so where are they when the school administrators are in clear violation of the law.
This is outrageous. Parents should be called in immediately with any form of abuse in a sexual manner is involved. These cases should be thoroughly investigated by DCS/LEO. Counseling should be immediately available to both the parties involved. For the school district not to report any of these cases according to the law is unconscionable.
Once again how are these unlawful things happening in our schools? Why is the administration covering for a child that is molesting another child? How many children has to be molested before someone does something? Wilson County parents need to hire an attorney for this tragedy to get to the bottom of this and get the molester out of your schools.
I feel for this child & her parents. My child was sexually harassed at school the last 2 years now in east tn & the school, school board, principal, sheriffs office has done nothing about it! I’ve never in my life seen a place that lets children be sexually harassed & abused like I have here. It’s devastating. I’m still fighting to get her justice.my child is depressed, won’t hardly eat & is anxious all the time. The school system failed her!