A student at Upper St. Claire School in Pennsylvania reported to her teacher that she, along with another student, was raped by one of her classmates on school property after school. Her teacher immediately informed the school officials of the rape, and offered to walk the girls to the bus after school to ensure their safety. The Principal, Dr. Michael Ghilani, denied this request, and instead decided to use the rape survivors as bait to catch students whom he believed were having sex on school grounds.
The girls were prevented from going home after school so that school officers could follow them and try to catch students in sexual acts. Instead, the girls were violently raped again, by the same offender as before.
Legal proceedings are in progress, however the school is still denying that the girls were ever raped. They claim that the girls liked the boy in question and had had consensual relationships with him. They further claim that the girls were jealous of his involvement with other girls.
Now, there is also a concern that the school district may be lying on their annual Safe Schools report, as no rapes were reported for the year that these girls were raped.
This is outrageous. Schools are supposed to be a safe place for students to go to. For some students, this may be the only safe place that they have. However, with bullying, harassment, and sexual assaults occurring at school, it is no wonder that many students do not feel safe. Both the boy and the school district in question need to be punished to the fullest extent possible in order to send a message to others that this type of behavior will not be tolerated at schools - or anywhere else for that matter.
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