Besides 610 WTVN-AM radio in town, WCMH-TV is the only outlet really covering this story.
Is it true that there was no sign of injury? I thought I heard they'd punched the girl in the mouth.
I heard on Fox News that the student was bleeding. Maybe this goofball thinks it was consensual assault and battery.
Good Lord, the woman is an idiot.
WCMH-TV is the best local news and weather in the Columbus tv market. Channel 10 has went so far downhill it is not even funny and 6 never was very good but they are now better than 10
"In fact, Retterer-Helfrich said she believes what took place was consensual sex -- an all too common occurrence, she said."
She sounds like a Bill Clinton feminist.
Glenn Beck is all over this story on his national radio show. He's taking it personal...his teenage daughter is handicapped, too.
My wife and I have been discussing why so many children are simply out of control these days. We've concluded that it's parents who coddle and defend their children and don't make the child accept accountability for it's actions.
Don't know how many times I've heard "they need to re-institute corporal punishment in the schools, but don't let them touch my kid". Or 'I'm not going to let someone tell me my kid is poorly behaved, is having trouble learning or whatever.
That doesn't mean I'm letting the schools off scot free. But the biggest problem is what is sent to be educated, not the educator.
One of the administrators was interviewed on T.V. last week and she said that they were given lemons and they were going to make lemonade (out of this situation).
I would like to here more about how this is going to happen.
Here's my bet. When they fired her, they committed some sort of procedural breech. She will be reinstated with full back pay and benefits, probably on the basis of the procedural flaw.
1. The age of consent in Ohio is 16. Reports give the age of the girl as 14 or 15. Doesn't the administrator care about the law?
2. The girl is a special education student, who may have lessened ability to give consent even if she were 16. Doesn't the administrator care about about the safety of such students?
3. Other students stood around and watched, while another student taped at least part of the incident. Doesn't the administrator care that students were doing this instead of being in class?
4. "Consensual" or not, it occurred on school grounds. Doesn't the administrator care whether the bathrooms, locker rooms, hallways, and showers are used for sex?
An idiot like Retter-Helfrich needs to be removed for the safety of the children.
Ignore for a moment the fact this was a "special needs" student. Ignore that she was assaulted in front of an audience. Ignore that it was my multiple boys. Ignore that she was supposedly punched too.
Wouldn't the school still be under obligation to inform her parents that their daughter was having sex in school?
Then when you add all the other factors, how the h*ll can this moron defend what they did?!?
This was a special education student. Depending on her level of disability (I know she had a severe speech problem), it's possible that she would be considered too incompetent to give consent.
"In fact, Retterer-Helfrich said she believes what took place was consensual sex -- an all too common occurrence, she said."
I cannot believe the unmitigated gall and utter stupidity of this woman. How is the name of Sam Hill can she say it was "consensual sex". If the "victim" is a 14 year old special education student and depending upon whether she is "trainable" or "educable", then her IQ may only be as high as 65 or 70, possibly lower. I may be off by a few points but I seem to recall this is the approximate range for these special ed folks. My brother teaches special ed but is not available to clarify this for me. Still, this child obviously does not have the ability to make these kinds of rational decisions apart from it might "feel good".
I am appalled the three so-called administrators were given a ten day "time out". All of them should have been fired.
This snippet about Retterer-Helfrich is from an earlier news story on channel 4:
http://www.nbc4i.com/news/4404238/detail.html
Investigation Continues
The Mifflin High School principal lost her job as part of the investigation. But now there are new questions about whether one of the assistant principals should have been in the school in the first place.
Three of the administrators disciplined in the Mifflin investigation have excellent records, but former assistant principal Suzie Retterer-Helfrich had a series of evaluations where she did not meet expectations, Andrews reported. Pages of documents dating back to 1999 show that Retterer-Helfrich "failed to exercise good judgment," adding that she "did not take responsibility for her actions or communicate properly with parents."
A later review said she would overcome all of the claims, but similar allegations have come again, Andrews reported.
A mildly retarded girl under 15 years old CANNOT give consent! It is RAPE, pure and simple. The boys should be incarcerated for 5 years min.
But now there are new questions about whether one of the assistant principals should have been in the school in the first place. Three of the administrators disciplined in the Mifflin investigation have excellent records, but former assistant principal Suzie Retterer-Helfrich had a series of evaluations where she did not meet expectations, Andrews reported. Pages of documents dating back to 1999 show that Retterer-Helfrich "failed to exercise good judgment," adding that she "did not take responsibility for her actions or communicate properly with parents."
A later review said she would overcome all of the claims, but similar allegations have come again, Andrews reported.
She has a "mannish" look about her.
MIFFLIN INCIDENT STEEPED IN CHAOS
Police want to charge 3 students in attack on 16-year-old girl
Published: Friday, April 15, 2005
By Bill Bush
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Three Mifflin High School students should face charges after an attack that has drawn national attention, Columbus police said yesterday.
Two boys should be charged with delinquency counts of rape, detective Mary C. Harrison said. A third student, an 18-year-old who videotaped the March 9 attack on a 16-year-old girl, should be charged with pandering obscenity, she said.
Detectives will make their case to Franklin County prosecutors Tuesday.
Police said spring break and conflicting stories slowed their pace, but witnesses responding to a Columbus Public Schools probe reveal a harrowing story:
It was an important day at Mifflin.
Students were taking state proficiency tests, and two members of the Downtown brass were visiting for a meeting with the principal, two assistant principals and about five teachers.
Assistant Principals Richard Watson and Vincent Clarno had been ducking in and out of the noon meeting to grapple with problems at the 800-student school on the Northeast Side.
Already that day, school administrators had investigated a report of a concealed weapon and an assault on a Somali student.
Adding to the problems, the Columbus police officer permanently stationed at Mifflin was away from the building for training. On such days, no replacement officer is sent.
At about 1:45 p.m., the meeting was disturbed by a call for help over the administrators’ walkie-talkies.
All hell had broken loose in the auditorium, and a 16-year-old, developmentally disabled girl was at the center of it. Watson and Clarno excused themselves from the meeting and joined teachers scrambling to figure out what had happened.
First-year Principal Regina Crenshaw decided to continue with the meeting, about bell schedules and curriculum.
The initial reports about what had happened in the auditorium were ugly. A group of girls had come screaming to the door of special-education teacher Lisa Upshaw-Haider.
They “told me that I needed to go to the auditorium to help the girl because boys were (having sex with) her, and there was a line of boys'’ waiting to get oral sex, Upshaw-Haider said.
Marshall Cobb, a Mifflin safety employee who had radioed for help, had seen students running through the halls “trying to observe some act.'’
He came across the girl, who “appeared to be very upset'’ but initially told him, “Nothing happened to me,'’ Cobb said.
Another girl said she had seen a boy punch the victim in the head and force her to her knees to perform oral sex.
On his way to the auditorium, Clarno broke up a fight. One of the boys was mad that the other had “snitched'’ on his cousin, who was involved in the incident, Clarno said.
Other students were telling another special-education teacher, Julia Calvario, that a student had videotaped the incident.
Told of this, Cobb and Watson immediately set out to get the tape, in part because they feared it would be posted on the Internet.
The girl, who has a severe speech impediment, was dazed, confused and crying, Upshaw-Haider said.
In the school office, no later than 2:15 p.m., Calvario finally was having some luck getting information out of the girl:
# There were four boys.
# They grabbed her by the arm and led her behind the curtain of the auditorium stage.
# She told them to stop, but they hit her in the head and told her to be quiet.
# Two made her have oral sex.
At this point, each teacher and administrator at Mifflin who was aware of this allegation was required under Ohio law to immediately phone the police or Franklin County Children Services.
None did.
“All I could think about was (the girl’s) inability to verbally articulate her thoughts because she is so low-functioning,'’ Upshaw-Haider wrote. “I could not get out of my mind the fact that (the girl) could not tell her side of the story, unlike those boys who were denying their involvement.'’
District officials kept in the dark
Officials found the videotape, which “showed sexual activity involving (the girl) and a male taking place on the stage of the auditorium,'’ Cobb wrote.
“The video we viewed,'’ Watson said, “showed no force or coercion.'’
The boy’s face was not visible, but officials questioned a suspect who was wearing similar clothes. He denied involvement and implicated several other students.
Upshaw-Haider knew the girl’s father and took it upon herself to phone him on her cell phone. Clarno saw him in the building about 2:10.
Clarno, at 29 the youngest member of the school administration, decided it was time to involve the principal.
He interrupted Crenshaw’s meeting, asked her to come to the door, and quietly informed her of the dramatic episode that had unfolded in the center of her school.
He told her “to come with me, because we have a crisis going on,'’ Clarno wrote.
But Crenshaw returned to the meeting — which might have continued another half-hour, said district executive Jaqueline Ralls, who was there.
“This is absolutely outrageous,'’ Superintendent Gene Harris said yesterday. “I would have gone back and said, ‘Look, we’re done with this meeting.’ ‘’
Harris has begun the process to fire Crenshaw.
District policy called for Crenshaw to inform Ralls — the head of all Columbus high schools — of reports of serious violence. But Ralls said yesterday that she and Crenshaw were together for about another 10 minutes before Ralls left the meeting early. She left the building, not knowing what had happened.
Pete Maneff, the head of vocational centers, who also was at the meeting, couldn’t be reached yesterday.
Delays, indecision and second guessing
“The father arrived a minute or two after I entered Mr. Watson’s office,'’ said one unsigned statement, which appears to be from Assistant Principal Suzie Retterer-Helfrich. “When Mr. Watson began giving details, it appeared to me as though the father had no idea what had reportedly happened, and Mr. Watson was proceeding as if he did.
“I excused myself and asked the dad if he knew why he’d been called, and he said, ‘No, a teacher called and said to get here right away.’ ‘’
Watson wrote that his main concern at that time was making sure the boys suspected in the attack did not leave the school. At 2:30 p.m., the four suspects could have simply been driven away on district school buses or in private cars.
“I introduced myself and sat the father next to his daughter, continuing to ask for information because I know the end of the day is near,'’ Watson said.
“As I relayed the current information, he asked if the police had been called,'’ Watson said. “I said no.'’
The father told Watson, “I want to press charges,'’ according to Upshaw-Haider. “Let’s get the police.'’
He pointed to the phone and motioned for Watson to call.
“Mr. Watson said that he shouldn’t call the police because the dispatch would go over the radio,'’ then looked to the others to support him, Upshaw-Haider wrote. Her account continued:
The father said, “I will call on my cell phone, and Watson repeated what he said earlier. . . .
“At some point, I informed (the father) that there was a videotape of the incident. Mr. Watson’s eyes bucked as I mentioned it.'’
Watson’s statement said, “Calvario and I told him to call the police, not 911. Our fear was that a news channel might tape his daughter and cause her further mental trauma.'’
Sometime before 3 p.m., Crenshaw had finally finished her meeting and joined her administrators in dealing with the reported attack.
“Ms. Crenshaw told the father come back tomorrow at 7:45 a.m. and our police officer would handle this,'’ Watson wrote. “You will be happy with the results.'’
At some point, the father called police and went to wait in the school lobby.
Because of a mix-up, the cruisers apparently were dispatched to Mifflin Middle School instead of Mifflin High School, and the father eventually went home.
The police later came to his house and arrived at the school at 5:20 p.m., Cobb said. All the administrators had gone home.
“We spoke as a team in the conference room sometime after the father had left the building,'’ Watson said. “We spoke of the events of the day and Ms. Crenshaw abruptly concluded the meeting and left.'’
As Clarno was driving home, “I was uncomfortable with how everything played out,'’ he wrote. Around 8 p.m., “unable to cope'’ with his thoughts, he returned to the school to review his notes.
“That’s when I was told by one of the custodians that the police had been at the school with the parent and they were walking around the cafeteria and auditorium area.'’
Clarno called Crenshaw at home and said, “We need to revisit how we handled our situation.'’
At about 10 p.m., as Ralls was getting ready for bed, Crenshaw called to tell her what had happened.
Later, a district investigator asked the three assistant principals about their thinking.
Didn’t you hear the girl’s story, they were asked.
“Yes, but I did not hear everything she said,'’ Retterer-Helfrich answered. “This victim has a habit of wiping her face with her shirt, which may explain her injury.'’
Did anybody think about calling the nurse or a counselor for the girl?
“No,'’ Watson answered. “The victim was in a safe area and Mrs. H. may have mentioned the emergency-room treatment.'’
Why did you not call the police?
“Mrs. Crenshaw said we were not calling the police,'’ Clarno said, “and that we would let (the assigned school officer) deal with the situation, since he is more familiar with our students.'’