GDS Student Newspaper posts about the horrible incident

[Anonymous]

I am not sure if the victims family thinks there is evidence that the Police have rejected but I doubt that the school is not cooperating with the police. This publicity is enough, never mind someone being able to point to not cooperating.

I’m not sure that the school is cooperating. I’m sure they have given the police everything they asked for, because they don’t want to be sued or accused of obstructing an investigation or something like that, but as they are they as cooperative and proactive as they could be? I doubt it, based on that that the email they sent out to parents today purged on blaming the victim and making it sound like the child completely made it up.
It provided no details about whatever their investigation was, or if they’ve done anything to either make sure that no more assaults occur or that no assaults do occur

A child’s allegations should always be taken seriously. In addition, if the child did make it up, they kept up with the lie long enough that their parents pulled both them and their sibling from the school and they’ve apparently been seeing a therapist ever since. It seems to me that a kid would have to be really really committed to put themselves through that for this long if nothing had happened.

regarding the masking, I wonder if it wasn’t a ski mask situation so much as it might’ve been kids obscuring their faces with a scarf they were wearing or drawing a sweatshirt hood close around their face.

[Anonymous]

I would be inclined to believe a huge range of abuse and sexual assault stories in middle school, but this one seems very implausible.

1) That they were able to mask their identities. It's a small school. Did they change clothes?

2) I could see an SA happening as part of hazing or something like that, but then there's no way other students wouldn't have known about it on some level, if not the details

3) Even if I could stretch to believe one very clever, secretive, deviant child predator...two? Who found each other and planned this and managed to keep their mouths shut for years, including during an investigation?

I'm not saying nothing bad happened to this kid, and I want them to be supported, but I seriously doubt this tale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and the alleged victims are now in my kids class. this sucks for all involved. how do the recover from this. they are about to admit a new class and colleges are supposed to wonder which kids did this when they apply? this is not good.

The accused?

[Anonymous]

Yeah maybe it is true, maybe it isn't. Let's check back in a couple months.

[Anonymous]

Are current families concerned?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and the alleged victims are now in my kids class. this sucks for all involved. how do the recover from this. they are about to admit a new class and colleges are supposed to wonder which kids did this when they apply? this is not good.

The accused?

Did I read that your takeaway is that it might detrimentally impact your kids’ college application process? That is peak DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and the alleged victims are now in my kids class. this sucks for all involved. how do the recover from this. they are about to admit a new class and colleges are supposed to wonder which kids did this when they apply? this is not good.

The accused?

No the victim who is no longer with the school. Wasn't this a kid in school until January of this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and the alleged victims are now in my kids class. this sucks for all involved. how do the recover from this. they are about to admit a new class and colleges are supposed to wonder which kids did this when they apply? this is not good.

Sorry, this was the quote that was lamented about the impact that this would have on their kids T10 prospects.

[Anonymous]

There is no accusation in the school newspaper or in the underlying email from the parents that the school did not cooperate with the police investigation.

[Anonymous]

If the perpetrators were masked and disguised their voices then they could be anyone from anywhere. Maybe fellow students, maybe not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff who runs this site will take this thread down or lock it - but this is newsworthy and talking about a school paper story about it should be fair game here.

Also yes to PP - kids need to be believed. GDS is hiding behind its lawyers. They had their legalese ready to send today so they clearly knew something was coming. Sickens me.

So many parents despise Russell. Great at speeches and gaslights parents on serious topics all the time. This is beyond gross and the email from the school today was "we dont believe victims"

GDS parent here.

This is very true —> “So many parents despise Russell. Great at speeches and gaslights parents on serious topics all the time.”

So glad he is leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would be inclined to believe a huge range of abuse and sexual assault stories in middle school, but this one seems very implausible.

1) That they were able to mask their identities. It's a small school. Did they change clothes?

2) I could see an SA happening as part of hazing or something like that, but then there's no way other students wouldn't have known about it on some level, if not the details

3) Even if I could stretch to believe one very clever, secretive, deviant child predator...two? Who found each other and planned this and managed to keep their mouths shut for years, including during an investigation?

I'm not saying nothing bad happened to this kid, and I want them to be supported, but I seriously doubt this tale.

I’m a parent and this is generally my thought. To add, this allegedly happened in a pretty well used bathroom during the short period between classes, that seems hard to pull off. And even if the kids were masked, basic characteristics, like gender, skin color, height, and build would narrow the possible perpetrators down to such a small number they could be easily identified.

It is also completely inappropriate to send an email to parents and students the way that this family did. The parents are clearly unhappy with the school, maybe for good reason or maybe they are insane.

If the school and police investigated this and did not find enough evidence to move forward, the school can’t and should not share anything about this with the community.

If some disturbed kid accused your child of something awful, of which there was no evidence, would you want the school to put that out on blast to the community just so that everyone had all the information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Horrible. Needs to be taken seriously.

What makes you think it wasn’t taken seriously? The school conducted an investigation AND the police investigated. Neither investigation found evidence. What were they to do? Expel everyone it could have been? Send blast emails to the entire community saying…what, exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and the alleged victims are now in my kids class. this sucks for all involved. how do the recover from this. they are about to admit a new class and colleges are supposed to wonder which kids did this when they apply? this is not good.

The accused?

No the victim who is no longer with the school. Wasn't this a kid in school until January of this year?

Last year, I think. Doesn’t it say January 2025?

[Anonymous]

GDS parent here.

No parent that we know despises Russell. We think he's been a strong leader of the school.