District targets bullying after allegations of rape on school bus

District targets bullying after allegations of rape on school bus LISA CORNWELL Associated Press

CINCINNATI - Police investigating a mother's complaint that her 15-year-old son's classmate tried to pick a fight with him ended up charging one boy with raping the 15-year-old on a school bus and another boy with being an accomplice.

The woman says her son was bullied for some time at his suburban Cincinnati school and in his neighborhood, with eggs thrown at their house. Now police and school officials are trying to sort out why the bullying may have started, then escalated.

School administrators say the March 22 confrontation on the bus appeared to be part of a pattern of intimidation by a small group of students, but the school system is taking steps immediately to try and prevent future bullying.

"Our immediate concern is to protect the victim and punish the aggressors in this case, but we realize that bullying and intimidation is a much larger problem and we need to look and act beyond school walls," said Jon Weidlich, a spokesman for Lakota Local Schools, the state's largest suburban district with more than 17,000 students.

Lakota Freshman School students Darrion Beverly and Jeremy Davis, both 15 and from West Chester Township, were being held at the Butler County Juvenile Detention Center pending a hearing set for Friday in the county's Juvenile Court. Beverly is charged as a juvenile with complicity to rape, and Davis is charged as a juvenile with rape and sexual imposition, West Chester police Sgt. Brian Rebholz said.

Davis' attorney Christopher Frederick and prosecutor Rebecca French declined comment Thursday. A message seeking comment was left at the office of Beverly's attorney, Jeremy Evans.

School officials and police said that they didn't know about the allegations of sexual assault until they began investigating the mother's criminal mischief report March 28 and her mention of a school bus fight the previous week.

"It was the investigation of the fight that set everything in motion," Rebholz said. "It was then that we uncovered information that led to the charges against the two students."

A school bus driver had reported witnessing a scuffle March 23, but said he was not able to get to the back of the bus in time to identify anyone. Neither the bus driver nor most students on the bus were aware of any problem on the bus the previous day, and it was not until the investigation began that a few students admitted witnessing the March 22 confrontation, authorities said.

The district has received numerous calls from concerned parents. Most of the callers were frustrated that a letter sent by school officials last week mentioned that two students assaulted a classmate on a bus but did not include more details about the extent of the assault, Weidlich said.

The school sent an updated e-mail to parents this week, clarifying that there were two incidents - the March 23 fight and "an earlier attack of intimidation and humiliation by two male students against a third male student."

Officials met with students throughout the day Thursday to discuss the issues and the need to report bullying and other illegal activity.

"We want them to know they have options for anonymously reporting problems," Weidlich said.

Meetings also will be set up with parents, and experts on bullying will lead seminars in the district's schools focusing on how to recognize and handle bullying and how to prevent it, Weidlich said.

Tracy Johnston, whose daughter attends Lakota Freshman, said that she was shocked to learn of the allegations but has faith in the district.

"Bullying has become a bigger problem in society, and I have talked to my children about it," said Johnston, 44, of Liberty Township. "I just hope we can do more to get children to report it."

An estimated 30 percent of the nation's 5.7 million teenagers have been involved in bullying as either a bully, a target, or both, according to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center.

The center says bullying involves a person or a group repeatedly trying to harm someone who is weaker or more vulnerable. It can involve direct attacks that can include violence or the threat of violence and indirect attacks such as spreading rumors or encouraging others to exclude someone.

HAMILTON - Prosecutors are pushing to have two Lakota freshmen tried as adults in the alleged sexual assault of a male classmate on a school bus.

But a lawyer for one of the 15-year-old boys characterized the incident Friday as "horseplay," and nothing like the rape that authorities say occurred on March 22.

The teens, handcuffed and shackled and dressed in gold and blue jail uniforms, didn't acknowledge their families, who packed a small courtroom for a hearing Friday.
Some of their relatives shared a bench with the alleged victim's parents, who live in the same West Chester neighborhood. They didn't speak to or look at one another.

Butler County Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus refused to release the teens, both students at Lakota Freshman School. Their lawyers suggested they be placed on house arrest.

Niehaus set an April 27 hearing to start proceedings that will determine whether the 15-year-olds should be tried as adults.

One of the boys - a lanky 6-foot-3 - faces a felony charge of complicity to rape for the bus incident. Prosecutors and school officials said the boy was suspended from class earlier this year and placed on court probation for urinating on ice cream in a teacher's lounge at Lakota West High.

Police said he pulled down the classmate's pants and pinned the boy down while the second teen used a pencil to assault the boy.

Defense attorney Clyde Bennett said his client's involvement didn't warrant the serious charge. "Our position is that he didn't know what happened was even going to transpire outside of horseplaying and wrestling in the back of a bus," Bennett said.

and the rest of the story....

Police said he pulled down the classmate's pants and pinned the boy down while the second teen used a pencil to assault the boy.

Defense attorney Clyde Bennett said his client's involvement didn't warrant the serious charge. "Our position is that he didn't know what happened was even going to transpire outside of horseplaying and wrestling in the back of a bus," Bennett said.

"He's not responsible for the conduct of the other juvenile and he's not responsible for whatever the other juvenile was going to do," Bennett said.

The second teen is charged with rape, gross sexual imposition, as well as aggravated menacing and criminal mischief. . The teen has no criminal record, his lawyer, Chris Frederick, said.

Neither Frederick nor any parents in the case would comment. But Bennett said the boys often engaged in similar horseplay on the bus, and that witnesses told authorities the alleged victim was seen laughing after the incident.

"I've read the statements. I've looked at the witness statements. Everybody believes that it was horseplay. The pattern of conduct between the gentlemen was consistent with what transpired on the bus," Bennett said. "This is not the first time that they behaved that way. They were having contact which most people would deem inappropriate, but it was horseplay, consensual."

Chief Assistant County Prosecutor Craig Hedric disputed Bennett's claim.

"It's not horseplay. It's barbaric. It goes far beyond bullying," Hedric said. "No one in their right mind is going to believe that this was consensual, that this was accepted by anybody."

Allegations against the teens unfolded March 28 after the alleged victim's mother reported to police that her house had been egged.

At the same time, school officials were already looking into a fight allegedly involving the same young men that had been reported by the school bus driver.

"The information about the sexual assault came through an interview with the suspects," Sgt. Brian Rebholz said.

School officials say the bus driver didn't see anything unusual on March 22, when the sexual assault allegedly occurred. On both days, the school was using a substitute bus that didn't have the usual video camera.

About 20 percent of the district's 195 buses are equipped with video cameras, and are used on some of the rowdier routes, officials of Petermann Ltd. said. The company provides buses and drivers under a year-old contract.

Most students on the bus claim they didn't see anything, Rebholz said. But some did, and they didn't report it to anyone.

That prompted school officials to launch an anti-bullying program this week at Lakota Freshman School. Students were told that such behavior won't be tolerated and that they need to report it.

"You've got 30-some kids on this bus and not a one of them said anything about it," Rebholz said. "Why didn't one of them go to their parents?"

School administrators also spent the last week trying to explain the incident to concerned parents, who questioned the safety of Lakota school buses.

Petermann's president, Pete Settles, said he and district officials are discussing more training for drivers.

Settles said the driver shouldn't be criticized for not seeing the alleged attack.

Ohio is one of two states, along with Illinois, where school bus seats are required to be 4 inches higher than normal, he said, making it difficult to see what's going on in the back. The safety feature keeps children from being pitched forward in a crash.

"Smaller kids or somebody who is intentionally trying to stay out of view of the driver - it's pretty easy to do, particularly if they are all the way in the back of the bus," Settles said.

Bullying has become a serious matter because the adult authorities are, in some cases, fearful of the bullies or their families, themselves. Girls are now becoming bullies, as well. A 12 year old boy in our family, a student at a "good" school, was approached by a 12 year old girl and informed that he was her boyfriend..He ignored the information and the next thing he knew she sent a couple of her aggressive girlfrieds to inform him that he was to purchase for her a $40 necklace. Of course, this kid did not have $40 and would not have made that purchase anyway. When the girl and her girlfriends realized that their ploy was not going to work, they made his life miserable at school. They told him what a horrible person he was, they called him names, and started rumors. This is a staunch kid, but he came home crying from the abuse and the name calling. This took place in KY. Senator Carol and Senator Cherry have introduced bullying legislation to take care of a serious and growing problem there..However, I do not know how far it has gotten. Yes, bullying has always gone on..However, today it borders on the criminal. Who among you has ever heard of a pencil rape on a schoolbus? Medically, depending on the end of the pencil used, that could result in serious injury, even requiring surgery. It is not a casual little assault and that community should demand that the "perps" be seriously punished. I cannot remember the exact percentage, but a high number of bullies go on to become criminals as adults. Perhaps if someone had the courage to punish at a young age, those kids could be salvaged.

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