Palm Beach County school's failure to report alleged sexual assault calls for action

Editorials from The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board are the opinions of the Board, not of the Post newsroom.

The arrest of four Palm Beach Central High School officials and a school district employee last Monday makes clear, regardless of the outcomes, the importance of school employees taking sex crime complaints seriously, following procedures and being on the lookout for signs of abuse even before a student might open up about it.

Palm Beach Central Principal Darren Edgecomb, assistant principals Dan Snider and Nereyda Cayado de Garcia, chorus teacher Scott Houchins and then-guidance counselor Priscilla Carter face felony charges for failing to report child abuse against the female survivor, who was 15 when the assault allegedly occurred in 2021. A friend of the survivor told Snider about the incident, but neither he nor other school officials he told about it notified state law enforcement or the Department of Children and Families.

More:Boy accused of assault is related to Palm Beach Central official charged with failing to report it

What does Florida law require of teachers, school administrators?

Florida law mandates that school district employees report abuse, neglect and abandonment, whether it occurs at school or outside it. That requirement is neither uncommon nor little known and school employees should be well aware of it: Virtually all U.S. states and territories have similar laws. And with good reason: Over half of women and almost 1 in 3 men have experienced sexual violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in 4 women and about 1 in 26 men have experienced a rape or an attempted rape. Young survivors may not open up to parents or friends about an assault but should be able to trust school officials, who are in the best position to do the right thing, to relay the information to the proper authorities.

"It's incredibly difficult for people to come forward to report sexual abuse," licensed psychologist Rachel Needle, of Whole Health Psychological Center in West Palm Beach, told the Post. Part of the reason is because the reporting experience can be so negative, said Needle, who is not involved in the case. "The disclosure experience is incredibly important. It can help promote healing, if it is handled right."

But that didn't happen In the Palm Beach Central case, the survivor's parents allege.

Palm Beach Central High School case: Accused is a 'good kid from a good family"

Assistant Principal Snider, it turned out, was related to the accused youth, according to law enforcement records. Snider became involved after the 15-year-old survivor's friend reported the assault to him in August 2021, records show. A school police officer told sheriff’s deputies investigating the assault that he was friends with Snider and that the male student, who was under 18, was a “good kid from a good family.” Snider, when reminded he was a mandatory reporter of child abuse or suspected child abuse, said he wasn't, because the boy was a relative.

The male student was not charged, though the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office found probable cause that a crime occurred, according to arrest reports. The survivor’s parents did not want to pursue a case against the male student in 2021 because they were worried about impeding their daughter's healing, Palm Beach Post staff writer Katherine Kokal reported. Now, the parents have decided to pursue legal action against school officials after information surfaced about the educators and whether they reported the abuse. 

Miami Lawyer Pedro Echarte, who represents victims of sexual abuse, points to Florida law that requires mandated reporters to call a specified hotline in such cases. School officials may not be qualified to investigate allegations of abuse but they are required to report them, says Echarte, of HaggardLawFirm.com, who is not involved in the case. "One of the most shocking things," he said, judging from public accounts of the allegations, "is that there were five adults involved and none of them did the right thing." He was aware of no reporting exemption for relatives of an accused.

No matter what a court determines about the individuals' culpability in this case, the school district must ramp up employee training. Sticking one's neck out by reporting an incident up the chain of command, or by approaching a student who shows signs of abuse, might go against some employees' personal inclinations. But such inclinations need to get trained out of them.

And it's not just about training in state law, as Echarte points out. Checks and balances need to be in place within the school district, "to make sure five people are doing the right thing and can't make these decisions on their own."