Superintendent Jerry Wartgow said today that disciplinary actions have been taken following an investigation into how staff at Grant Middle School responded to the sexual assault of a female student last October.

"This was a very serious incident," said Superintendent Wartgow. "Our staff did not respond in a manner that meets our standards for being thorough, timely and thoughtful. In particular, the incident was not reported to the Grant community promptly and the victim of this attack was not treated with appropriate sensitivity."

The actions announced today by Superintendent Wartgow include:

• The principal at Grant Middle School, Elmer Manzanares, has been given a written reprimand by Area Superintendent Irene Jordan. Wartgow said Manzanares has been ordered to attend training concerning proper treatment of victims of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment.
  
  Manzanares also has been ordered to develop a school-wide sexual harassment prevention program.
  
  Manzanares will also develop a plan for correcting various policy and procedural violations found during the investigation of the assault. That plan will receive close monitoring through the remainder of the semester by district administration.
  
  
• The teacher in charge of the computer lab on the day of the assault has been given a written warning and the warning has been placed in the teacher's personnel file.

The assault occurred at the end of the school day last October in one of the school's computer labs. Two male students were subsequently expelled – one for the balance of the school year, the other for a full calendar year. Two other male students received five-day suspensions.

"I have visited Grant Middle School as part of my routine school visits," said Superintendent Wartgow. "In fact, I have visited nearly every classroom at Grant and spent hours at the school. What I saw were hard-working students and many dedicated teachers. This appears to be an isolated incident that was not addressed with the kind of care it deserved and required. However, it would be a mistake for anybody to draw any conclusions about the quality of education available at Grant based on this one situation."

Superintendent Wartgow also said that the district's Department of Student Services would soon prepare a reminder for all school principals about the appropriate steps when investigating and responding to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault.