IS A COVER-UP IN THE WORKS?
Earlier this month our website exclusively reported on an alleged sexting scandal among middle school students in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
The latest on that story? Not a word … although according to our sources, the school district in question was most displeased with our coverage.
“They may or may not take legal action,” one source familiar with the district’s response told us.
Wow …
Been there, done that.
To be clear: In preparing our report we conducted on-the-record, recorded interviews with several individuals – including a principal at one of the schools allegedly caught up in this sexting scandal. We quoted this principal verbatim (and faithfully) in our coverage. Furthermore, our reporting was based on tips referenced in police reports filed with Lowcountry law enforcement agencies.
Nonetheless, earlier this month Dorchester County school district officials reportedly told several teachers that their principal had been “misquoted” by our website, and that we had “made stuff up” in our coverage.
Needless to say we take that sort of allegation very seriously …
In fact, we are currently in the process of obtaining affidavits from several of these teachers to accompany our interview recordings, notes, police reports and other evidence that was gathered in preparing our story.
Anyway …
This week another sexting scandal has been reported at a another government-run school in South Carolina. Which one? According to our sources, this alleged scandal centers around Hyatt Park elementary school – part of the woefully-mismanaged Richland County, S.C. school district one.
You know … these peeps.
According to our sources, this incident involves a pair of elementary school students who allegedly accessed self-made pornographic material on two computers located in the school’s library.
We have been provided with extensive additional information regarding this matter, including reports made about the incident to the S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS).
We’ve also been provided with information regarding the school’s response to these allegations that have given us cause for concern.
This website has placed multiple calls to the school in an effort to speak to its principal, Dell Brabham, about the incident and the school’s response to it. We received no response, although media requests to Richland district one schools are routed through the district office.
Which did respond …
“There is an investigation that is ongoing – an allegation of possible misuse of district computers by two students at Hyatt Park,” district one communications director Karen York told us.
York cited privacy laws as limiting the amount of information she was able to provide us about the incident – which we totally understand. She also said that she would look into the school’s response to the situation.
York added that city and county law enforcement agencies were notified about the incident in question – and after conducting an investigation concluded that no criminal acts took place and that there was “no victim” in the case.
Stay tuned on both of these fronts … we look forward to providing updates on both of these stories (and any other similar cases we uncover).
(Banner via iStock)