Girl Reports Suspected Predator On School Premises, Told To Just Deal With It

ACLU Nebraska is calling for action from Crete High School after the school allegedly took no action to help a student that reported a problem with a school volunteer.

The school permitted a 52-year-old man, currently awaiting trial for first degree sexual assault of a Crete High School student, to volunteer at the school. It was at the school when his alleged victim saw him.

She says she immediately reported the problem to the school's principal, Tim Conway. She says the principal told her she would just have to deal with it.

"ACLU Nebraska is extremely concerned that a school administrator would be so insensitive to the concerns of a young woman reporting a crime," said ACLU Nebraska Legal Director Amy Miller. "Crete failed to help this young woman. When she reported to the principal, the law says the school should have immediately taken her report seriously and helped her."

Their inaction is beyond explanation, but for me their dismissal is the real issue.  This man has not been cleared for sexually assaulting a student at that school.  While I understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty I think safety of the students should be the priority.  That means until cleared a suspected predator is forbidden from access to students.  How in the world could someone possibly make an argument against that?  I tried to play devil's advocate and I got nothing.

The ACLU is being fair, just asking for a policy change so that alerts of this nature would be given a certain amount of attention.  This girl was surely uncomfortable being involved, and when she did the right thing the person she was taught to trust blew her off.  This is inexcusable.  She deserves an apology, and the policy change would make sense.  Stop being stupid and do it already, and teach how to correct and move on.

Kids have to be safe at school.  This is a no-brainer.