GDS Student Newspaper posts about the horrible incident

[Anonymous]

Sure, the situation is horrible, and identifying precisely what happened is tough. But if your own child came home from school and told you something like this had happened to him or her, would you want the school to behave in this way??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, the situation is horrible, and identifying precisely what happened is tough. But if your own child came home from school and told you something like this had happened to him or her, would you want the school to behave in this way??

You mean cooperate with the police and hire a 3rd party firm to investigate? yes this is exactly what I would want the school to do.

[Anonymous]

I would want the accusation to be taken seriously and to investigate. I would also need to accept the limitations of any possible investigation in the total absence of anything actionable.

To be clear, I have read nothing that says that the victim identified the alleged perps and that no action was taken.

Accusations need to be taken seriously. But nothing here suggests that they were not taken seriously, it's just that there was nothing to support the claims.

[Anonymous]

No details of an actual investigation have been released. All we know is that the MPD filed the paperwork and that the school hired an “independent investigator” that turned out to be an Epstein-linked cover up company to orchestrate their legal cover.

If there was an actual investigation, they could release the details. How many people were questioned? What physical evidence was recovered? Any surveillance video remaining? Because right now there is no record of a legitimate investigation. There is also no reason to believe one was ever performed.

[Anonymous]

Who is "they" in terms of releasing the details? The only person who could do that would be the family, who has chosen (and understandably so) not to do that. It's not the schools place nor the MPD to release anything without consent of the family.

In the family's email, dd they say that there was no investigation? I didn't read that. I can't imagine how I would react so I'm definitely not judging them for the scorched earth email, but it was not the most formal of information releases. They could have sent an email that outlined the parts of the investigation that supported their child's claims, forcing the MPD and GDS to respond (or not respond). In this case, they simply said that the MPD found the claim credible but that nothing more was actioned due to lack of evidence. If they had more compelling details, they presumably would have shared them.

The whole story is horrible, but the lack of evidence doesn't make the school guilty of a cover-up nor the MPD incompetent.

[Anonymous]

And exactly how would you propose that these details be released in a way that complies with privacy standards?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes, there are horrible situations that have no clean solutions. Based on 41 pages of some valid and some invalid posts, this would appear to be one of them.

A child who claims to have been sexually assaulted deserves to be believed and assumed to be telling the truth. That means that when the kid expresses anything that sets off alarms, all appropriate authorities should be notified and investigations should commence. Any accused should be interviewed, any evidence should be collected and analyzed and any information helpful in the prosecution an offender should be utilized.

However, if there is a delay in reporting, while totally understandable from the victim, the process is complicated. Evidence disappears, details are less clear, memories fade.

In this case, it is possible that the schools and the authorities did what they could with the information present and still had no legal authority to do anything substantive.

The school cannot interview let alone expel nameless students. While the school should absolutely have cameras in public spaces, it’s unclear if they did. If not, or if the delay in reporting eliminated the utility of the cameras, that is not a consideration.

There are multiple thresholds that, in my opinion, need to be hit. First, if the school is going to send an email to all parents saying that an incident of this nature occurred, they need some degree of corroboration or confidence, which they did not have. If the police are going conduct a full investigation and ultimately prosecute, they need evidence, which they did not have.

The situation is horrible but sometimes situations are horrible. It doesn’t make the school, the cops, the parents or random kids culpable.

Even if they did have cameras, is the data going to be available 3 months later? Most is not saved beyond x time frame unless an incident is reported.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps. Maybe yes, maybe not.

For those who keep saying that there was no investigation, what is that based on? You think MPD is lying? They said that their investigation yielded insufficient evidence. Are they lying? How do you know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps. Maybe yes, maybe not.

For those who keep saying that there was no investigation, what is that based on? You think MPD is lying? They said that their investigation yielded insufficient evidence. Are they lying? How do you know?

What do you think their investigation entailed other than taking a statement from the victim/family? No surveillance video, no physical evidence, and 3 months have passed. What would they do? Have you ever tried questioning people about a random day over 3 months ago? You kind of have to make a public request for info, which never happened. Now over a year later, the memories would be gone. What you might call an “investigation” I would call absolutely nothing.

[Anonymous]

I think they did what they were capable of doing given the absence of evidence. They probably looked for teachers who interacted with the victim after the incident to see how they seemed. The presumably looked to see if there was surveillance footage. They probably talked to the kid to see if he could provide any identifiable characteristics about his alleged attackers.

That still constitutes an investigation even if the conclusion was that there was nothing there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they did what they were capable of doing given the absence of evidence. They probably looked for teachers who interacted with the victim after the incident to see how they seemed. The presumably looked to see if there was surveillance footage. They probably talked to the kid to see if he could provide any identifiable characteristics about his alleged attackers.

That still constitutes an investigation even if the conclusion was that there was nothing there.

If they did that then that would be great. However, it's all speculation and assumptions. The only thing we know is that GDS has declined to share any theoeetical report with the family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there has god forbid been another incident like this at school in the time GDS sat on this for a year and did nothing, this will open up GDS to great liability including criminal liability.

This is why they should have notified the community in 2025 when this came to light - even to say we have investigated a troubling charge and not found anything. They refused to even do that.....

This is precisely why I am disinclined to believe that GDS was negligent I its response, as others assert. GDS would be litigated to its death if the perpetrators committed another assault. There is no incentive to believe that GDS would sweep an incident this serious under the rug. Also as one PP noted I cannot believe that the rumor mill has not spit out the names of the perpetrators. GDS is a small community and the fact that none of the middle schoolers seem to know anything is telling. GDS parents love gossip, and there has been nothing about the perpetrators that is known.
I do believe that this poor child suffered something terrible, but I do wonder if the actual facts of this child’s abuse are being obscured by this child out of fear.

+1 If you were actually a parent at the school when this supposedly was reported, you would know that the family did share it with plenty of families, and based on who it was and how they handled it alone you would know enough to trust that the school did everything right here. The people on here claiming they know anything are sadly liars with nothing better to do with their free time.

I am PP and am a parent of two GDS students, including one in the MS. I feel your anger, frustration, and pain. I really do. I also think that GDS is not negligent here. By no means do I think that the school and the board are perfect, or even great, but in this case I believe the school acted appropriately. I also believe that the child was abused, but not by two GDS middle schoolers. There is just too much that does not make sense here.

Were you aware of this incident before the email went out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps. Maybe yes, maybe not.

For those who keep saying that there was no investigation, what is that based on? You think MPD is lying? They said that their investigation yielded insufficient evidence. Are they lying? How do you know?

What do you think their investigation entailed other than taking a statement from the victim/family? No surveillance video, no physical evidence, and 3 months have passed. What would they do? Have you ever tried questioning people about a random day over 3 months ago? You kind of have to make a public request for info, which never happened. Now over a year later, the memories would be gone. What you might call an “investigation” I would call absolutely nothing.

Did the investigator take statements from anyone? Highly unlikely

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps. Maybe yes, maybe not.

For those who keep saying that there was no investigation, what is that based on? You think MPD is lying? They said that their investigation yielded insufficient evidence. Are they lying? How do you know?

What do you think their investigation entailed other than taking a statement from the victim/family? No surveillance video, no physical evidence, and 3 months have passed. What would they do? Have you ever tried questioning people about a random day over 3 months ago? You kind of have to make a public request for info, which never happened. Now over a year later, the memories would be gone. What you might call an “investigation” I would call absolutely nothing.

Did the investigator take statements from anyone? Highly unlikely

The family said they cooperated.

[Anonymous]

We’re students or staff questioned? From the family’s email it appears that there was not a robust inquiry.