Updates

DC sources tell us that the 15 year old special education student accused of raping a classmate turned himself in this week, (I assume in the company of a guardian). He has been charged with sexual assault in the story we first brought you about the Southeast 15 year old who was attacked in a bathroom of Melvin Sharpe elementary after participating in a Martin Luther King Day program. The girl’s teacher and an assistant principal could also face charges according to our sources. They didn’t contact police, the girl’s family or emergency medical personnel following he attack. The victim’s mother took her to Children’s hospital that night where it was confirmed that she was raped. DC school spokesman John White says their internal probe in to how the rape was handled is still underway.

 

 

Another update to a Nine News Now story from this week. One of the three men (Two of them homeless) who helped save a drowning man from the Potomac this week is now in jail. It turns out that Deleon Butler is really Wayne Hall and he was mistakenly released from jail where he had been doing time for driving a stolen car. Hall, 47 of no fixed address was recognized by DC police officers when he showed up at Harbor Police headquarters to help arrange a tribute to him and his two rescue partners. Hall is back in jail and finishing up a 20 month sentence. I interviewed Hall this week during which time he said of his heroics “if I do nothing else at least I can save that I helped save a life”.

 

 

  

School Rape Investigation

DC Police and City school officials need to conduct a thorough investigation into what happened at Melvin Sharpe school on Friday, January 12^th so that names and reputations can be restored if need be and if people need to be arrested and/or fired..so be it. If you missed the story on Nine News Now on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, here’s a summary.

A 15 year old Special Education student says she was beaten and raped inside a school bathroom after being sent there by her teacher to change from a skirt to pants after the student had participated in the school’s Martin Luther King program. The girl whose name and face we never used in our TV report says a male student entered the bathroom and began slapping her before throwing her to the floor where he proceeded to rape her. Two other male students, according to the girl, heard her screams and came to her rescue, pulling the attacker off.  The female student says the teacher arrived on the scene and said “you’re always getting into something”. An assistant principal also weighed in according to the girl saying “she’s okay, go back to class”. The student’s mother told us on camera that she arrived home to find her child crying on the front steps to their southeast apartment building and upon hearing the account of what happened immediately called police. Tired of waiting she took her daughter to Children’s hospital. The mother produced a record from her daughter’s examination. It said that a sexual assault had occurred. A DC police detective arrived at the hospital and began an investigation. A DC school spokesman confirmed that no one at Melvin Sharpe school called police, the girl’s family, or for medical assistance. One school source explained that the assistant principal never heard the word “rape” used when students were describing the initial bathroom incident. And yet another source who didn’t want to be identified suggested that the sexual assault may have occurred elsewhere. A police investigation should sort out fact from fiction. What isn’t in dispute is that a 15 year old girl with multiple mental and physical disabilities has been violated and harmed in a criminal matter that could haunt her for the rest of her life.

The 15 year old suspect has been transferred to another school pending the outcome of the probe. He’s also a special education student. The girl’s mother says her daughter won’t be returning to Sharpe either. In a school designed especially for “special needs students”; where the ages range from pre school to twenty two, where was the supervision for both the victim and the accused? The Washington Teacher’s Union says The Sharp School has seen 20 staff positions cut this year alone. That’s eight teachers and a number of teacher aids gone. Where was the teacher or aid when the female student first entered the bathroom? This investigation can’t end soon enough! We’ll keep you posted.

    

The New Year

A belated Happy New Year.

 

I had a chance to check out Mayor Fenty’s Inaugural ball for all of forty five minutes, in between Nine News Now Newscasts Saturday night…got a scoop! The New Mayor’s school takeover plan may be going to referendum after all. Fenty says the voters spoke, endorsing a takeover of the troubled public schools, when they elected him by wide margins in every Ward; but the same voters also elected a new school board that included former City Administrator Robert Bobb as President. At the Mayor’s party Saturday, someone sympathetic to the Board of Education slipped me a copy of the “District of Columbia Public Education Reform Amendment”. The referendum receipt confirms that the Elections Board has already accepted an application from Robert Vinson Brannum, a substitute teacher and former school board candidate. If the Elections Board approves the measure, Brannum said by phone Saturday night that Fenty’s takeover bill would appear as a referendum on a future ballot for voter’s approval.

 

They say fifteen thousand turned out for the Mayor’s ball…many had to stand in line outside the Convention Center waiting for the chance to get in…and then some had to be escorted to an overflow room above the ball, downstairs…

Complaints were many…ran out of food, long lines for food and drinks…couldn’t hear the music on stage and lots of people with tired feet couldn’t find a place to sit….

 

Word was lots of the Mayor’s associates were holed up at the nearby 777 restaurant…