KC school mentor accused of sexually abusing 9-year-old. Why weren’t parents notified sooner?
For weeks, Hickman Mills School District officials failed to notify parents of credible allegations that a male mentor in the district had sexually abused a 9-year-old female student at Warford Elementary School.
By closing ranks and keeping parents in the dark, the district put other students at risk. By waiting to notify the community, school officials failed to make students’ safety their priority.
“Kids come to school to learn,” said Arimeta DuPree, the attorney for the family of the 9-year-old student. “But they also must be protected.”
According to Dupree, the man worked as a mentor at three different schools in the district. Now, Dupree is urging any witnesses or other victims to come forward — a step that school officials should have taken weeks ago.
The child’s family plans to file a civil lawsuit against the school district.
The alleged abuse occurred over a two-day period in October, according to the Missouri Department of Social Services’ Children’s Division. District officials notified social services workers on Oct. 8 that a paid mentor in the district had provided the student with his personal phone number and had communicated with the child after school for hours.
The accusations against the man are disturbing. He is not being named because he has not been charged with a crime. Kansas City Police are still investigating the claims.
Phone records obtained by the Children’s Division reveal sexually explicit texts. The man told the student that “she looked good in music class sucking her thumb” and “he wanted to put his (penis) inside her.” He also encouraged the child to send him pictures of her, according to the report from the Missouri Department of Social Services’ Children’s Division. She complied.
There were at least 10 telephones calls between the mentor and the student and well over 200 texts from early October. The Children’s Division’s preliminary finding of sexual abuse by a preponderance of evidence was substantiated on Nov. 17, according to the report.
So why did it take weeks to notify parents of the alleged abuse? Hickman Mills officials said privacy laws tied their hands.
To be sure, the district must protect the identity of all parties involved. But on Thursday — only after receiving media inquiries about the allegations — school officials released a statement and sent a letter to parents of Warford students informing them of the incident.
“The school district is aware of a credible allegation that an independent contractor working for the school district may have inappropriately contacted a student via electronic means,” the statement read. “The school district immediately reported the allegation to the Children’s Division and is fully cooperating in the investigation of this matter. The contractor is no longer performing services for the school district. Due to the sensitive nature of this matter and the need to protect the confidentiality of our students, no further information is available.”
What prevented school officials from sending that same letter sooner?
The district has no formal policy for informing parents of such allegations. In the future, school officials should immediately inform parents of any safety concerns. Delaying action could put other students or potential victims in harm’s way.
Raytown officials sent a letter home earlier this school year to notify parents of a privacy breach. The Raymore School District sends out classroom-wide notifications if head lice are discovered at school. Even the counseling department at Shawnee Mission South High School issued a precautionary letter to parents warning that a Netflix show may romanticize suicide.
Parents at Warford and other Hickman Mills schools certainly needed to know that a mentor who had worked with children at multiple schools had been credibly accused of sexually abusing of a 9-year-old fourth-grader.