RIALTO, Calif. (KNX) — Two assistant principals at Wilmer Amina Carter HIgh School in Rialto allegedly threatened to expel a student unless she dropped a complaint that she was sexually assaulted by another student, according to a claim she filed on Thursday.
The claim serves as a precursor to a possible lawsuit against the Rialto Unified School District. In it, the student alleged she reported to Assistant Principal David Shenhan Yang in November that she had been “physically and verbally sexually assaulted and attacked” by a 17-year-old male classmate at the school one day prior.
Yang told the girl to wait outside his office as he discussed the matter with fellow Assistant Principal Natasha Harris-Dawson, the claim alleged. The two then invited the student back into the office, where they pressured her to drop the complaint, suggesting she was to blame, the claim alleged.
The administrators reportedly told the girl her alleged attacker was being harassed and physically threatened by other students due to her allegations. She said she didn’t know the alleged harassers.
“Mr. Yang and the school’s security guard told claimant she needed to ‘drop the beef,’ and if she didn’t, she could and/or would be suspended or expelled,” the claim read.
The student said Harris-Dawson then called the girl into her own office and asked her if she had refused the advances of the alleged assailant, and if so, whether she had said “no” loud enough. Harris-Dawson then suggested “maybe it was the way [the girl] was dressed” that provoked the attack, the claim alleged.
The two assistant principals did nothing to pursue or further investigate the girl’s complaint, the claim said.
Three months later, the student told a teacher at the school what happened, and he told her to lodge an additional complaint with Assistant Principal Johanna Cuellar. Cuellar then contacted the girl’s mother, informing her “something had happened to her daughter regarding a boy” and that the incident was “under investigation.” The girl’s mother was told she had “nothing to worry about,” according to the claim.
On Feb. 16, the girl’s mother reported the suspected abuse to Rialto police, who launched an investigation. Detectives learned that two other girls, ages 15 and 16, also alleged they were sexually assaulted by the same suspect. Yang and Harris-Dawson also allegedly failed to report one of those victims’ complaints when it was made in September, police said.
A week later, police arrested Yang, 39, and Harris-Dawson, 37, at the school. They were released from custody the following day on their own recognizance.
Yang and Harris-Dawson were each charged with one felony count of child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death and two misdemeanor counts of failure of a mandated reporter to report child abuse or neglect. California state law compels teachers and school administrators to inform law enforcement about allegations of abuse raised by students.
Both are scheduled for arraignment in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court in April. Harris-Dawson has denied any wrongdoing. Yang has not yet commented on the charges.
Rialto Unified “takes the allegations in the claim for damages seriously, and does not condone any act of sexual misconduct against any members of our community,” a district spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.
Police cited the accused 17-year-old assailant for misdemeanor sexual battery and released him into the custody of his parents.
