A 15-year-old North Carolina girl was suspended from high school - and ordered to take a class called ‘sexual harassment is preventable’ – after she reported being sexually assaulted by a male classmate, according to a report.
The Charlotte teen, whose identity was protected due to the nature of the case, told a local media station that she was harassed nearly every day by a fellow Hawthorne Academy High School student.
She reported his behavior after it escalated.
‘He would, like, come into the bathroom and he would push me into the stall,’ the girl told WBTV. ‘He put his hands in my pants and then he was like touching my breasts.’
She said she initially reported the assault to the school, which handed the file over to police, who confirmed to WBTV that a minor was charged with sexual battery as a result of her complaint.
A teenage girl, whose identity was protected due to the nature of the case, said she was suspended and ordered to take a course after reporting a classmate for sexually assaulting her
The formal charge didn’t stop school administrators from accusing the victim of filing a false report and issuing a one-day suspension last month, the girl’s mother said.
“The school did their investigation, gave me a phone call, and said, ‘Hey, look, unfortunately, it looks like there’s no evidence that shows that what your daughter saying took place,’ the mother said.
‘[They told me] ‘We’re going to have to give her a day of suspension, so then I asked the principal, “Well if the police are telling me that he did do these things, he admitted to them, and that I have the right to press charges, you’re telling me this didn’t happen?” And she said, “Well, unfortunately, what the law does has nothing to do to do with CMS, so, unfortunately, we have nothing else that we can do about this.”’
Students gathered at the school Wednesday to support the girl and protest the school's response to the alleged incident.
She's a student at Hawthorne Academy High School in Charlotte, North Carolina
Students gathered at the school Wednesday to support the girl and protest the school's response to the alleged incident.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School district also ordered the girl to take a ‘sexual harassment is preventable’ class, the girl’s mom said.
‘They are making her feel like she is being punished for coming forward,’ she told the station.
She said she’s worried the case could discourage other sexual assault victims from coming forward.
‘That scares me because she told me how hard it was for her to come out and tell this story to me to the school, to the police,’ the mother said.
Some members of the public took to social media to express their disdain for the district’s behavior.
‘How about don’t punish children that have been sexually harassed by another classmate by sending them to a “sexual harassment is preventable” class,’ one woman wrote on the district’s Facebook page.
The girl's mom said she fears the district's response to the case will make other sexual assault victims afraid to come forward
‘What sort of archaic treatment is that? You’re enabling poor behavior from students who think the person they’re harassing is to blame for their actions.’
Another woman agreed, adding: ‘Abhorrent doesn’t come close to describing the level of ignorance involved in the administrators’ response and allowance of this program.
'NO place for this behavior anywhere, much less in an “educational” environment. Hope the perp and board are both held accountable.’
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