Rape case shines light on oversight

When news surfaced that a boy at Walker Middle School was sexually attacked multiple times over multiple months - in his own school - parents and school board members had the same reaction.

How could this happen?

Parents said they were disturbed by how a lack of supervision could have allowed a 13-year-old to be raped several times in a school locker room. School board members asked whether schools know enough to ensure such repeated bullying and assaults won't happen again.

"What this tells me is this goes far beyond a rare gap in supervision," said Mike Lima, whose grandson attends Walker Middle. "To me, it shows the school administration and school board are culpable for maintaining an environment where this can happen."

While no policy specifically governs the supervision of students in school locker rooms, a coach or teacher must supervise the children in their care, whether they're in a locker room or not, said Lewis Brinson, the school district's assistant superintendent for administration.

Now the district is asking if the boy's attackers - who prosecutors say are his four classmates and flag-football teammates - were in the locker room without their coach's permission.

"It's extremely difficult to have an adult in every place," Brinson said. But, he added, "if a child is under your supervision, you supervise them."

The school district's office of professional standards, an internal affairs-like division, has started its own review of what led to the attacks. When it became a criminal matter last month, administrators held off interviewing students at the request of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Brinson said. Now that a police report has been filed, school administrators can resume asking questions.

Three of the teens charged in the case, Lee Louis Myers, Raymond A. Price-Murray and Randall John Moye, all 14, each posted $15,000 bail and were released from the Orient Road Jail. A fourth, 15-year-old Diemante Roberts, remained jailed Thursday. Jail officials say he has posted bail but had not been released as of late Thursday because his monitoring bracelet is still being set up.

The teens are charged as adults and each faces four counts of sexual battery. Authorities say they bullied the victim for weeks before raping him with a broomstick and hockey stick in a locker room at Walker Middle. If convicted, they could face up to 30 years on each count.

Meanwhile, the school board plans to talk about the district's anti-bullying practices at an upcoming meeting. At least one board member thinks not all schools know enough about what the district is doing to prevent bullying, and not all schools have adults in place where they're needed.

"We're doing a lot to address it, but it's not enough," board member Candy Olson said.

Lima, the grandfather of a Walker student, said he would like the district to set a policy addressing supervision and bullying. The district might have policies against bullying, but they need to include ways to prevent it, he said.

To stop bullying, schools need to break the "code of silence" among students aware of threats and intimidation, schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said. They also need to make sure an adult presence is felt where students think they can get away with misbehavior.

"There are a lot of things going on" to stop bullying, Elia said. "Have they been enough? Obviously not."

Prosecutors say other students witnessed at least one of the attacks. Brinson said they likely won't face discipline.

The students charged in the attack have been removed from Walker Middle. Moye is living with his father in Lake County. A judge ordered Myers, Price-Murray and Roberts to wear an electronic monitor while awaiting trial.