A staff member of a school in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, has been charged with sexual assault of a child, and two other felonies.

The staff member is facing three charges:

• Child sexual assault in the first degree,
• Possession of child pornography, and,
• Sexual exploitation of a child.

According to the source:

A parent claimed that his 13-year-old son had been forced to have sex with his friend's mother. He was 12 at the time of the incident.

The boy told police he had been invited to [the accused's] house "countless times" and that she often acted "crazy" due to drinking heavily. He told police, at one such sleepover during the winter, he was woken up by a naked [accused]. The boy claimed [the accused] had removed his pants and was on top of him, and that his friends saw.

The boy told law enforcement that he told [the accused] to get off of him several times, but she refused. He also tried to push her off. Later, the boy told police that [the accused] texted him trying to get him to apologize for what happened.

Another boy, aged 15, told authorities [the accused] had also been inappropriate with him. He said that he and [the accused] exchanged sexual chats and pictures via Snapchat. The teen told law enforcement [the accused] sexually assaulted him in a Racine County parking lot in August of this year.

The teen admitted to sending a sexual video of himself to [the accused]. [The accused] admitted to police to saving the video and also sending it to another person. https://www.tmj4.com/news/kenosha-county/kenosha-elementary-school-employee-faces-charges-including-sexual-assault-of-a-child (Oct. 11, 2024).

Commentary

The above presents several allegations that safe student environment programs should take note of when developing and/or enforcing policies and procedures.

First, schools should prohibit staff from hosting students at their residences without approval from the school, the attendance of other safe adults, and never overnight. In the above matter, the victims were friends of the accused's son, but that is never an exemption to this important rule.

Second, schools should prohibit staff from consuming alcohol or drugs while in contact with or around students, at or away from school.

Third, schools should prohibit staff from communicating with students without approval from the school and parents. Staff must copy the school and parents with all communications made directly to students and should only communicate through approved channels, like the school email server.  

Finally, schools should prohibit staff from sending images to or taking images of students without express written permission of parents/guardians and the school and only for the educational purposes.

The final takeaway is that the school in this matter likely had all or some of these policies and the accused staff member ignored them. Whenever a staff member breaks a rule, schools need to investigate the breach in a timely and professional manner to help prevent the violation from leading to determine something more serious, like a crime.