Anne Arundel County Schools and Anne Arundel County Police investigating a sexual assault at the Arundel High School Homecoming dance on September 28th.
The incident, classified as a 4th degree sexual offense by police, was immediately reported by the 16-year old victim. According to officials, no one was able to establish any suspect(s) based on the description which included skin tone, hair color, shirt color and the fact they they wore glasses.
The parents asked the asked the school administration to send a letter to the school community asking for help identifying a suspect; however, school Principal Gina Davenport declined to do so and said that she would meet with students to discuss “how to improve the event” and hoping that someone woudl come forward.
This was not the response the parents expected and over the weekend, they took it to social media.
The post went viral over the weekend and we reached out to the school district on Saturday morning. This evening, school’s spokesman released the following statement:
“Arundel Principal Gina Davenport and her staff followed all appropriate protocols and investigated the incident involving this student thoroughly both on the night of the dance and subsequent to it. While there is disagreement over whether a letter should have been sent to parents of students, the school has continued – and will continue – to work with the family and to support the student involved in this matter.”
The principal, Gina Davenport did indeed issue a letter that was posted on the school’s website this afternoon, nearly a month after the incident, saying that all protocols were followed and that the school did not issue a letter initially because they wanted to protect the victim. She says she met with student leaders to get their thoughts and reminded parents that the school does not tolerate such behavior.
The school stated that they reviewed video footage with the victim’s parents; and the parents have said that the video footage was unclear. Earlier this year, specialized video equipment was installed at all high school football fields and gymnasiums in order to live stream events. It is unclear if this is the video system used during the homecoming dance.
Arundel High School’s signature program is the Community Development and Global Citizenship and the school was the test site for the Global Community Citizenship Course which will now be a graduation requirement for all students systemwide.
