Sussing Out the Changes in the KUOW story on the Rape Allegations at Garfield High School

It appears there two versions of the most recent Garfield High School rape story by KUOW.  Via email I learned that KUOW changed/updated the story but their website does NOT reflect any statement about that.

The date on the story is April 30, 2024 at 11:34 am. Despite the changes, there is no notation of an update and you would at least see that in the timestamp. The timestamp has never changed.

As I have said many, many times, I am not a trained journalist but a citizen reporter. But even I know you don't print one story, change a material piece of it, and then not acknowledge the change. 

I did previously report that just this week, KUOW stated that they are laying off staff and disbanding their 20-year youth voice program. So it seems like a bit of chaos in their newsroom but that's not really an excuse for poor editorial choices. 

 

Why is this important? 

- Because of the relationship that exists between School Board director Michelle Sarju and Nyasha Sarju (mother-daughter).  

- Because Nyasha played basketball at Garfield High School just before the rapes were happening. Her statement about the relationships between players and coaches being "cozy" - what does that mean? Did she and other players see issues?

- Because Nyasha was hired by SPS in October 2017 and left in 2021 (this would be right after her mother was elected to the Board). She worked at Interagency and was interviewed by the investigator.

 - However, Nyasha Sarju's LinkedIn page has her still working at Interagency even as she wrote in a different job. Why, if you had a new job, would you keep your old job as a current one? 

- Because Director Sarju should be notified by SPS Legal that if there is a settlement with the victim in this case, she should recuse herself because her daughter was a witness in the investigation by SPS. 

To note, Garfield High School is part of Director Sarju's district.

Also, I do not have a screenshot of the original story but the quotes below came directly from the KUOW story as it appeared yesterday when I wrote about it.

First version with Sarju mention.

A former Interagency staff member, Nyasha Sarju, told the district investigator “that an Interagency student told her that Mr. Hall had made advances towards her when she worked with him at Rainier Vista,” when the girl was 16 years old. Sarju never reported the allegation to district officials, the investigation found, “a violation of the District on reporting these types of allegations.”

The other accused coach, Walter Jones, was her foster brother, and she also played basketball on the Garfield girls’ team about a decade ago.

Second version with Sarju mention

Another reporting misstep in Hall’s case, investigators found, happened at the Southeast campus of Interagency Academy, a public school in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood.

According to a district investigator, a former Interagency staff member, Nyasha Sarju, told her “that an Interagency student told her that Mr. Hall had made advances towards her when she worked with him at Rainier Vista,” two years prior, when the girl was 16 years old. Sarju, a former Garfield student athlete, had close ties to the basketball team and told the investigator that she felt the relationship between the players and coaches was too cozy. Her mom is board member Michelle Sarju.

Sarju said she asked the woman, who was 18 at this point, if she wanted to talk to someone about what happened, but the woman said no. Sarju never reported the allegation to district officials, the investigation found, “a violation of the District on reporting these types of allegations.”

Asked for comment, Sarju told KUOW by email that the investigator misquoted her.

"I shared that the student said he was weird, and [the investigator] interpreted that as he made 'advances,'" Sarju said. She said the comment the student made was concerning in hindsight, but not at the time.

“There was no allegation,” Sarju wrote.

 

The differences are:

- In the initial story, it is stated that Nyasha Sarju had told the investigator that an Interagency student told her that Hall, one of the suspects, made advances to the victim when both the victim and Hall worked at Rainier Vista Elementary. (Editor's' note: that school is Rainier View Elementary, not Rainier Vista.) 

- In the initial story a claim was also made that Walter Jones had been a foster brother with Sarju. From my investigating, Director Michelle Sarju has three children - Isaiah, Ezekiel and Nyasha. I seem to remember Director Sarju mentioning being a foster parent at some Board meeting but did she foster Mr. Hall? I can ask but I doubt she'll answer.

 

In the second version:

-  "Sarju, a former Garfield student athlete, had close ties to the basketball team and told the investigator that she felt the relationship between the players and coaches was too cozy. Her mom is board member Michelle Sarju." 

This is totally new.

-"Sarju said she asked the woman, who was 18 at this point, if she wanted to talk to someone about what happened, but the woman said no." 

Again, this is not in the original version.

- In the second version, KUOW had reached out to Nyasha Sarju for comment and she stated there was no allegation from the young woman and that Sarju reported the girl using the word "weird" and that she believed the investigator interpreted that as "advances."