By Garrick & Carrie Moritz
Garretson Gazette
Editor's Note: A warning to our readers, this story will contain disturbing content. To protect our sources and the children involved we are making the deliberate choice not to print the names of the families or students involved.
As readers will recall, Parent #2 came to us with a story about their daughter, currently enrolled in middle school at the Garretson School District. At the time of last week’s publication, Parent #2 was not ready to come forward with public commentary, but now they have chosen to do so.
“These incidents started with simply bullying and harassment,” said Parent #2. “We told her to just ignore it and stay away from the kid in question. We informed the school of the behavior and the treatment our daughter received. They assured us that there would be heightened awareness of the situation. Throughout this whole process, we’ve repeatedly begged and pleaded with the school officials, because we were extremely concerned for her physical safety and mental health.”
Though the parents did not want to directly comment on the second incident, other sources have confirmed that the second major incident was exploitive sexual photography. This incident could be described as a form of sextortion, a disturbing trend that is on the rise nationwide and which we will talk about in greater detail in this article.
“Thirdly, our daughter then received a death threat via text message from the same group of individuals,” Parent #2 continued.
“Fourth, our daughter was getting off the bus with our other two children, when a young man yelled slurs at her, accentuated with filthy language.”
“Fifth, the same individual at the center of these issues, at a basketball game, showed her his phone containing sexually explicit photos with my daughter, photos that had been modified to include her face, while making obscene sexual gestures toward her with her grandparents nearby to witness,” Parent #2 said. “They went to school officials to report what they saw and to address their concerns.”
“Sixth, we got a call from my daughter from a school phone, telling me she that she had been struck in the face by another student. This happened after lunch in the gymnasium with the middle school/high school principal in the room. She also was told, while holding an ice pack to her face, that she needed to be nicer to the student in question, when it was proven on tape that she said nothing to the person who struck her.”
“The seventh incident, our daughter gets off the bus, returning home crying,” Parent #2 said. “I was home at the time and asked her what had happened. She told me an individual got up from his seat in the front of the bus, came to where she was sitting, and physically restrained her, and tried to kiss her without her consent. After some digging, we discovered that the same individual student who has been behind the previous bullying and harassing behavior paid the other student to restrain and attack her. All students involved admitted to the truth of the incident. As far as we know, nothing has been done. The bus security camera does have footage of the event.”
“The eighth incident we discovered that classroom emails were compromised by the same group of individuals, and false messages were sent between several accounts.”
“We have not spoken the principal or to the school resource officer about incidents seven or eight, and the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s department has not called us about the bus or email incident,” Parent #2 said. “We were contacted for the previously mentioned physical violence, but nothing else. To this date, as far as we know, no students have been expelled from school because of these events. To recap, our daughter has been verbally, physically and sexually assaulted. This is completely unacceptable behavior, an extremely toxic and unsafe environment for our child or any child to learn in. I simply want the truth to be known, for justice to be served and to have other families understand the situation, so that their students will not have to suffer through this themselves.”
Parent #2 said that they will be withdrawing all of their students from the Garretson school and enrolling them elsewhere as soon as possible.
The spouse of parent #2 also had this to say.
“I want to tell everyone that there have been teachers that have been very supportive of our daughter,” the spouse said. “This is an administrative problem for us. The teachers have been doing what they can, but they have to do what they’re told.”
"When is enough, enough?"
That was the question posed the parents. Their student experienced multiple instances of harassment and bullying over the past year, each incident escalating until their student was assaulted on the bus.
"That was the final straw for us," Parent #2, said. They pointed out that they've met with administration at the school at least eight times, and saw no de-escalation of incidents between their child and the perpetrator. The spouse confirmed they had spoken with the middle school/high school principal, the superintendent, and a school board member all individually, but still, the bullying continued.
To ensure students in the Garretson School District are safe, the Gazette undertook a two-hour interview with Superintendent Guy Johnson, going over what steps are taken, what rises to the level of suspension or expulsion, and how the school's culture works to prevent bullying. We also spoke with educators and other parents, and researched local and national statistics to try to determine whether this was a systemic issue.
When an incident is reported, there are multiple steps that should be taken, according to Supt. Johnson. This tends to be the purview of the principals, who are in charge of disciplinary procedures in the school.
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