At yesterday’s Board of Education meeting, Superintendent George Arlotto was questioned about written protocols regarding sexual assault/abuse reports in the schools. This stems from a recent sexual assault that took place in September at Arundel High School’s Homecoming dance.
The parents of the victim have claimed that the school system did little to assist them the evening of the assault and in the weeks after. Initially, Principal Gina Davenport declined to send a letter to parents asking for people with information to come forward; but ended up issuing a letter once news of the assault began to spread on social media. At the time, the school and AACPS Central Office all stated that Arundel High’s administration followed all protocols
At the Board of Education meeting, the Superintendent was asked about written protocols and said that the District did not have any.
This morning, Arlotto backed off that assertion and issued the following statement and advised they have now posted the protocols on the school’s website.
During last night’s Board of Education meeting, in response to questions from Board members, I made an erroneous statement when I said that our school system has no written protocols for handling sexual assault reports.
In my mind I was thinking of publicly published protocols, but nonetheless the thought I expressed to those in attendance and those watching the meeting was incorrect. I apologize for that mistake.
Our school system does have established protocols, detailed in a chart of appropriate steps and actions that is adaptable depending on the nature of the case. As I alluded to last night, that information is used in principal trainings on this subject. The chart is now available to the public on the Student Support Services section of our website.
— Anne Arundel County Schools Superintendent, George Arlotto
