« Ind. Courts - More on: Practitioner questions to COA staff attorneys | Main | Environment - "Asian carp seized, U.S. firm fined" »

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Ind. Law - "Ex-Muncie Central principal charged over handling of rape case"

Updating a Nov. 19, 2010 Muncie Star-Press story that began:

MUNCIE -- More than a week after a student reported she was raped at Central High School, school administrators are coming forward to speak with police detectives.

The development happened after police blasted the school for "interfering" and "delaying" the police investigation into the reported rape on Nov. 9. * * *

School officials did not call police in after the victim reported having been raped in a school restroom, but instead had her sit in the principal's office for two and a half hours. The high school's principal and two assistant principals backed out of an appointment last Friday to meet with detectives.

Today Douglas Walker reports in the Star-Press in a story that begins:
MUNCIE -- The other shoe dropped Monday for ex-Central High School Principal Christopher Smith, who now faces a criminal charge over his handling of a student's Nov. 9 report that she had been raped in a school restroom.

Smith, 40, 4309 W. Sandpiper Drive, was charged Monday afternoon with failure to immediately report child abuse or neglect, a Class B misdemeanor carrying a maximum 180-day jail term.

The formal charge, filed in Delaware Circuit Court 5 by Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman, alleges that Smith "had reason to believe that a child may be the victim of child abuse or neglect" and "did knowingly fail to immediately make a report to the Indiana Department of Child Services or a local law enforcement agency."

Authorities have said Central administrators failed to notify police -- including officers working security shifts in the school that day -- about the girl's claims. The student reportedly sat in Smith's office for 2 1/2 hours after reporting the assault, and her alleged attacker was allowed to go home.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 8, 2011 11:25 AM
Posted to Indiana Law