According to court records, school personnel declined reporting a sex assault with a baseball bat.
According to a court document, five staff members at Texas’ private school have been charged with felony offenses for failing to report a student accused of sexual assault to the police. According to reports, one student was taken into custody.
Three administrators and two coaches at Midland Christian School – including superintendent Jared Lee and athletic director Gregory McClendon – were arrested this week for “failure to report with intent to conceal neglect or abuse,”According to local media, this is a felony according court records. They were all reportedly freed on Wednesday on bail.
Lee and McClendon were not the only ones charged. Baseball coach Barry Russell and secondary principal Dana Ellis were also accused. Assistant secondary principal Matthew Counts was also arrested. Local officials said that a student had been taken into custody in connection to the purported attack.
The school was called by police to investigate an alleged case of sexual assault against a child. This happened in January. Detectives were told the incident occurred about one week prior during baseball practice at Midland’s MH Christensen Stadium, where the victim said he was abused as part of “freshman initiation day.”He also said that his locker room was full of fellow students who pushed him to ground. “started hitting him”Later “assaulted [him] with a baseball bat,”According to the records.
The affidavit notes that secondary principal Ellis was informed of the assault on January 20 and alerted Lee, the school’s superintendent, the next day. Lee, allegedly, launched an internal probe and took no further actions, rather than bringing it to the attention of police. The police claim that email exchanges between school officials indicate they also knew of the incident, but did not report it.
The school’s board of trustees responded to the allegations in a statement on Wednesday, confirming the five employees had been arrested and that “school officials have, and will continue to, cooperate with law enforcement and their investigation.”
“The five administrators were notified of an alleged hazing incident involving some of our student-athletes that resulted in school disciplinary action,” wrote the board’s president, Jason Stockstill, adding “The physical, spiritual, and emotional safety of our students is the most important responsibility we bear as educators and one we take seriously.”
Continue reading “advice from legal counsel,”However, the President noted that there would be no additional comment from the school on the matter.
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