Indictment: 3 school leaders punished student claiming sexual assault
A principal, an assistant principal and a former counselor of a school in Colorado have all been indicted on a charge of failing to properly report claims of sexual assault from a teacher on a teenage student and suspended that student.
This comes after a Prairie Middle School social studies teacher was arrested in August of 2017. Brian Vasquez was accused of sending nude photos and physically abusing students over several years.
Middle school teacher arrested for sexual assault also taught in El Paso Co.
The indictment obtained by our partners at Denver7 center around a claim from a student in 2013. The student claims that when she told Prairie Middle School Principal David Gonzales and Assistant Principal AJ MacIntosh about her inappropriate interactions with Vasquez, they told her it would be devastating to Vasquez’s career and that they pressured her to “recant her disclosure of sexual abuse by Vasquez.”
According to the indictment, Vasquez caught wind that the student was saying he had sexually assaulted her, so he met up with her to “impress upon her the devastating effects her disclosure would have on his career and family.”
When the student met with MacIntosh and Gonzales together, she said she had made it all up. Then, the victim was told that she would be suspended from school for several days.
Four years later, in the indictment, Vasquez admitted to police he sexually assaulted the girl.
During testimony to the grand jury, MacIntosh said she was “generally aware of the District’s expectations regarding the immediate reporting any allegations of sexual abuse, she nonetheless believed it was her individual responsibility to conduct her own personal investigations of allegations of impropriety of any type on the part of school staff, before complying with her obligations under the law.”
MacIntosh said she remembered the victim but claimed she did not remember the sexual abuse claims, the indictment says. MacIntosh also said that she could not remember her involvement in the suspension of the student.
Gonzales also said he had no memory of the sexual abuse allegations against Vasquez.
Gonzales and MacIntosh have been placed on administrative leave, according to the Cherry Creek School District.
Cheryl Somers-Wegienka is a former counselor at Prairie Middle School and was also involved in the victim’s suspension, according to the indictment.
All three face a misdemeanor charge of failing to report child abuse or neglect.
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