Updated 3:45 p.m.
Principal Steven Butler told police he received a complaint Thursday about 10:30 a.m. from a female student, who is a juvenile and said she had been inappropriately touched by a male teacher, according to the CPD incident report, attached to this article.
Butler notified police Friday morning about 9:30 that the girl had reported "several occasions" of inappropriate touching by the teacher that she said occurred during class on campus at the high school.
Capt. Mark Camp said the juvenile girl is age 16 or younger.
Original Report
Cartersville police are investigating a complaint involving a Cartersville High School teacher who has been accused of inappropriate contact with a student, according to the press release.
The alleged incidents occurred from Oct. 15 to Nov. 8 and the teacher has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation by the both the city school system and the police department.
"The principle launched an investigation into this matter immediately upon being notified by the victim," Chief Tommy Culpepper said in a statement. "We are cooperating with the school system in the investigation.
"Due to the age of the victim and the fact that at this time the teacher is only considered to be a suspect, no further information is being released."
The investigation is continuing, police say.
"Due to the age of the victim and the fact that at this time the teacher is only considered to be a suspect, no further information is being released." Unfortunately, principals are not supposed to launch investigations the Police and/or DFACS are supposed to handle that. Principals are mandated and are required by law to report (within 24hrs) NOT TO INVESTIGATE. Police should be running the investigation not the school system that is how it is handled in every municipality and county in the state and country. Why is Cartersville different? Could it be that Harry White, the School system's attorney, is also the city judge? The police have to go in front of the city judge on a daily basis, talk about a TOTAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST that can't even pass the smell test much less the appearance of impartiality. Why wait nearly the nearly 24 hrs to report the suspicion to authorities, which could put kids in further risk. Principals aren't investigators and to suggest that they are in charge of police and criminal matters is quite simply ludicrous.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=8874354 is a story in the San Jose newspaper where a principal was convicted of just this behavior. The quote from the Ass't District Attorney was, "She needed to be held accountable, and we needed to send a message to the rest of the mandatory reporters in our community that their obligation is to report, not to investigate," School administrators are not authorized to carry out criminal investigations, they are mandatory reporters NOT INVESTIGATORS, do I repeat myself? It is the " appearance of impartiality that is important, if not the impartiality, re: the smell test -this one doesn't pass either. Obviously, if the Cartersville police are "cooperating" with the school administrations investigation not leading something is horribly wrong in Cartersville. Go figure this is how it works all over the country including Georgia. A third party should be brought in at this point because this case has been compromised by this behavior. I would suggest the Bartow County Sheriff's office or GBI, someone who would be willing to conduct and lead their own impartial investigation, not "cooperate" with school administrator's investigation.