Five school officials have been arrested and charged with felony counts of failing to report the alleged sexual assault of a 15-year-old student, authorities said. Those arrested included the father of the boy named as the attacker, court documents say.
Five high-ranking school officials have been charged in Florida with felony counts of failing to report the alleged sexual assault of a 15-year-old student, authorities said. Those charged include the father of the reported attacker, according to court documents.
Assistant principal Daniel Snider, whose son was named in the alleged 2021 sexual assault, was arrested July 24, along with principal Darren Edgecomb, assistant principal Nereyda Cayado de Garcia, choir instructor Scott Houchins and former counselor Priscilla Carter, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
All are considered “mandatory reporters” of child abuse, according to authorities, meaning they are legally required to report the suspected abuse of a minor to law enforcement and to the Department of Children and Families (DCF).
But according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, months passed before authorities were notified that a female student alleged a fellow 15-year-old classmate at Palm Beach Central High School had sexually assaulted her at a local beach.
School officials first learned of the alleged attack in June 2021 when a student gave a handwritten note to her choir teacher, saying a friend had been assaulted in April and that “many anxiety and panic attacks were caused by this leading to self-harm," according to the sheriff's office.
The choir teacher, Scott Houchins, later told investigators he had passed the note to another administrator, but couldn't remember who, according to sheriff's department incident reports filed in connection with arrest warrant affidavits sought by a department investigator.
The note then passed between high school administrators, the sheriff's department said. Later that summer, the alleged victim tried to kill herself on a school trip to Washington, D.C. authorities said. A Palm Beach County Sheriff’s investigator later told school employees that if the letter's content “had been properly addressed before the summer,” the girl’s attempted suicide “could have potentially not taken place,” according to the incident reports.
The school officials charged late last month have been reassigned to positions in which they have no contact with students, Palm Beach County School District spokeswoman Angela Cruz Ledford said in a statement
“The allegations involving students occurred off of school property and over a weekend,” Ledford said. “However, no matter when or where any alleged assault against a student occurs, our policy aligns with the law, which requires all personnel to report suspected abuse.”
Inside Edition Digital reached out for comment to Garcia, one of the charged assistant principals, but has not heard back. A request for comment was also sent to Houchin's attorney, who has not responded.
Carter's attorney, Steven Bell, told Inside Edition Digital that a not guilty plea has been entered on behalf of his client. "She is presumed innocent and we intend to defend her to the fullest extent of the law," Bell said.
Edgecomb's attorney, John Howe, told Inside Edition Digital, "We starkly disagree with many of the characterizations of the facts in the probable cause statements." Edgecomb has pleaded not guilty, according to online court records.
In a motion to dismiss the charges filed against Snider, his attorney argued his client was not required to report the allegations against his son because of privacy laws protecting him and his family, and because Snider "has a right to not be compelled to betray his son by being forced to utter to the government very harmful accusations about his son that he does not even believe," said the motion, which was filed Tuesday.
The motion also says Snider was not compelled to report the allegations because he believed his son was not guilty he was not part of how the school handled the alleged incident. The father was removed by principal Edgecomb from the school's investigation of the girl's allegations, the motion said.
A student had approached Snider on Aug. 16, 2021 to say a friend had been assaulted by his son, and Snider gave the student a form to write down what allegedly happened, the motion said. Snider then folded the paper in half, did not read it, and took it to principal Edgecomb, the motion said.
Reached by telephone Wednesday for comment, Howe told Inside Edition Digital that all statements about his client "will be presented in the courts."
Arrest warrant affidavits claim the alleged victim had spoken with several school officials during the summer of 2021 and described her attack in interviews and submitted written statements to the staff.
Principal Edgecomb allegedly told staffers during an Aug. 19, 2021 meeting that the girl should have told her parents, and that her parents should have contacted law enforcement, the affidavits claim.
He also allegedly said he had conducted his own investigation, and did not believe the girl's allegations, according to the affidavit. He had not reported the abuse accusations “because he felt that a sexual assault did not occur, based on his investigation,” the affidavits said. “We weren’t going by hearsay,” he allegedly said at the meeting.
Nonetheless, the principal reversed course hours later and reported the case to the Department of Children and Families, the affidavits said. The girl's' parents were also notified by Edgecomb and told they were responsible for reporting the allegations to law enforcement, the affidavits alleged.
Law enforcement became involved on Aug. 20, 2021, when the girl's parents contacted the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office to report they had learned the day before from school officials that their daughter may have been the victim of sexual battery, authorities said.
Investigators later discovered corroborating evidence of a sexual assault, deputies said, but the father ultimately told a deputy "he does not want this matter dragged out in the legal system which could potentially inhibit the progress (his daughter) is making," according to a sheriff's department incident report. No charges were filed and the case was closed in October 2021, the department said.
On an unspecified date sometime later, the father contacted the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office again, saying he wanted to press charges against the five school officials, who were later arrested, saying they were "criminally negligent in their Mandatory Reporting of the incident," the department claimed in the arrest warrant affidavits.
The girl had suffered significant trauma, her parents alleged, from the way school officials treated her and her reports of being sexually assaulted by a fellow student.
The five staff members are all currently free on bail, with arraignments scheduled for later this month, according to online court records.
