Garfield High School Scandal Revealed By Girl Assaulted by Two Different Coaches

 From KUOW, a sorry story:

Two former coaches from Garfield High School in Seattle have been accused of sexually assaulting a girl who played on the school’s basketball team.

One assaulted the girl when she was 13 in 2013, the other coach in 2017 when she was 17.  The first coach is Walter Junior Jones and the other is Marvin Wayne Hall.

A Seattle Public Schools investigation found Hall committed sexual misconduct and boundary violations with students, including telling another girl he had a “crush” on her. That girl reportedly told her father, an assistant coach on the team. Hall has not been charged with a crime.

Tomás Gahan, the personal attorney for the now 24-year-old woman, called the school’s athletic department a “predatory environment,” and said that the woman is only now grappling with the toll it took on her childhood.

“Her middle school and high school experience was defined by serial molestation, or serial rape, by people in authority at her school,” Gahan said.

“It happened when the team would travel and in hotel rooms. It happened in the coach's offices at the school,” Gahan said.

If true, it's disgusting.

According to a police report, Walter Jones was allowed to volunteer as a weight training coach at Garfield in 2013 even though the district had banned him from employment or volunteering in schools after he was forced to resign from Ballard High School.

Gee, I wonder what principal was at Garfield when all this happened. 

Jones’ court records include restraining orders filed by four different women, including three for domestic violence, between 2004 and 2018.

Jones is on electronic home monitoring on a $50,000 bond awaiting trial for one charge of second-degree child rape, for allegedly raping the girl when she was 13, and one charge of third-degree child rape, for allegedly raping her when she was 14 and 15.

The evidence submitted by prosecutors reportedly includes “voluminous” phone records between Hall and the accuser, including texts that refer to her experiences with Jones.

Jones’ trial is scheduled to begin May 8.

No statement from SPS; I'd bet they were hoping to keep this on the downlow.

Comments

Anonymous said…
SPS has a valuable goal to help boys live up to their full potential. Unfortunately they are unable to provide anti sexist lessons and equity of girls in fair balance. How many lawsuits have to occur before course correction happens? When will basic safeguards matter?
3/15/24, 7:51 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more