Some parents expressed outrage. Others said they were fearful for their children. And a couple stressed the many positives of their Howard County school.
Close to 200 parents gathered Wednesday night in the cafeteria/auditorium of Wilde Lake Middle School to discuss the reported sexual assault on a 13-year-old student who said she was victimized by two classmates in a school bathroom May 20.
School officials and police described the assault as an "isolated incident." This was the first time police had been called to the school this year, they said. But many parents said the school is out of control.
"I was not satisfied," said Sheryl Cabean, who is hesitant about sending her fifth-grade daughter to the school in the fall. "I think they did not head-on address the questions. This did not calm us."
Parents were able to learn few details of the alleged assault.
Police had reported previously that a school official found the girl walking in a hallway, and the student said she had been sexually assaulted in a boys restroom by a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old. The girl was hospitalized for observation.
The three students were supposed to be in gym class when the incident took place, police said, but went to get a drink of water.
"There was a prior relationship," Lt. Roland Denton of the division of family crimes and sexual assaults told parents at the meeting. "That is about as much as I can share."
None of the students involved has returned to school since the incident, police said.
During a question-and-answer period at the 90-minute meeting, a parent told officials that she had been forced to explain what sexual assault is to her sixth-grader.
"That is serious," she shouted.
It was just one of the heated comments shouted at school officials and police who stood in the front of the room fielding questions.
"You always sugarcoat stuff," a parent yelled.
"What about a security guard?" another asked.
At least four parents in the back of the room shouted that their children had been assaulted at the school within the past two years.
Diana Lyles yelled that her daughter had been assaulted in the school. After the meeting, she said a group of students had dragged her daughter by her book bag down the hall.
"There is a safety issue in the school," she said. "It was not addressed. There is no intervention, getting to the root of the problem."
