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Police Won't Charge Student

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - No charges will be filed in a case in which a Muslim girl said she was threatened at the middle school she attends, St. Petersburg police said Tuesday.

"There are so many conflicting statements that we are not going to forward it to the state attorney," St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.

According to a police report released Tuesday morning, an 11-year-old boy on Nov. 7 tugged on the Islamic head scarf of Hannah Chehbab, also 11, at Azalea Middle School.

The scarf, or hijab, became loose and exposed some of the girl's hair, the report says. Hannah was sent to a bathroom to fix it, the report says.

Two days later, Hannah's parents told Assistant Principal Solomon Lowery that the boy also had threatened to bring a BB gun to school and shoot their daughter, the report states.

Lowery, though, said that when he asked Hannah whether anyone had threatened to bring something to school and harm her, she said that didn't happen, the police report states.

Because of those conflicts, police will not forward the case to the state attorney's office, Proffitt said.

In addition, claims by the girl that the 11-year-old boy choked her for eight seconds on a different occasion could not be corroborated by witnesses or school videotape. The boy denied choking her or threatening her with a BB gun.

In the seven-page police report, 11- and 12-year-old schoolmates say Hannah and the boy actually are friends and constantly talked and played around. One girl told investigators the scarf incident occurred after Hannah tapped the boy on the head. When he did the same, the girl said, Hannah tried to push his hand away and the scarf came off.

None of the students, except one, remembered a threat involving a BB gun, and that student said either the boy who pushed her head scarf off, or another boy, made the threat the day after the scarf came off, the report says.

Ahmed Bedier, the executive director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the BB gun threat was real because a student remembered it.

Bedier also criticized the school district for failing to thoroughly investigate Lowery. Hannah's parents denied that the assistant principal had a private conversation in which their daughter said she had not been threatened, Bedier said.

"There is no reason for the girl to lie," he said.

A school department investigation, however, concluded that Lowery acted appropriately with the information he was given. "When a situation was brought to his attention, the AP responded," the investigative report says, referring to Lowery by the initials of his title.

In a letter Thursday to Bedier, schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox took issue with Bedier's account.

"In this particular case, after a careful and measured review, I have found some difference in your presentation of the 'facts' and the 'facts' described by those who have reviewed the situation," Wilcox wrote.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampmatrib.com.

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