In today’s
(2/1/13) edition of the Union Sun and Journal is an article
about an incident surrounding the Royalton Hartland School
District girls’ basketball team. There was a piece in the
article that has led to some confusion about what occurred.
It was quoted that Board of Education President Patty Riegle
said “If someone came up to me and reported that someone got
raped in a bathroom, by law I have to tell someone.” This
has led people to believe that the incident with the girls’
basketball team involved a rape, which is absolutely untrue.
This comment was made to list an example of a type of action
that would give rise to mandated reporting but was not made
to comment on the nature of the incident itself, in fact the
newspaper made a correction in the online version of the
story and is going to print a correction in the Saturday,
February 2, 2013 edition.
The Royalton Hartland School District is a district of immense pride, great students, great families and great staff. Those involved have been cooperative throughout the investigation. It is likely every school district in the country has experiences with these events. In the end we are an educational institution where learning takes place sometimes through making mistakes. We will continue to educate our students, staff and community regarding such incidents. We believe all have learned about the seriousness of these incidents, and are firm in our belief that our school community will endure. While we are currently in the media spotlight, I can only hope that others learn from our story, and perhaps it prevents such an incident from occurring elsewhere.
The Royalton Hartland School District is a district of immense pride, great students, great families and great staff. Those involved have been cooperative throughout the investigation. It is likely every school district in the country has experiences with these events. In the end we are an educational institution where learning takes place sometimes through making mistakes. We will continue to educate our students, staff and community regarding such incidents. We believe all have learned about the seriousness of these incidents, and are firm in our belief that our school community will endure. While we are currently in the media spotlight, I can only hope that others learn from our story, and perhaps it prevents such an incident from occurring elsewhere.
