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An elementary school student who said she was molested by a male visitor had been told by Ketcham Elementary School employees to escort the man through the building, according to police. A spokeswoman for D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson told The Washington Examiner that DCPS does permit schools to use students as escorts “based on the schools’ need” but is now reviewing that policy.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier said on WTOP-FM’s “Ask the Chief” program that a black man in his late 20s entered the Southeast D.C. school Wednesday afternoon and asked to speak to someone. The girl was assigned to escort the man through the building, where he inappropriately touched her. Police are searching for the man, and the investigation is ongoing.
School officials in Fairfax, Montgomery and Arlington counties said they do not allow elementary students to chaperone visitors through school hallways. Other neighboring districts did not respond to requests for comment.
D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown said he was “greatly concerned” by the incident.
“By no means would I want my daughter giving any adult a tour to an absolute stranger,” Brown told The Examiner.
District parents said they were horrified by the incident — particularly how the elementary school student was allowed alone with a stranger. And the reverberations were felt far beyond Ketcham.
“If a child is escorting an adult, the adult could do inappropriate things,” said Marcio Duffles, a parent at Georgetown’s Hyde-Addison Elementary School who said he had never observed such a practice at his own school. “My view is a kid should pretty much be in a classroom, unless they’re out at recess or something like that.”
Absalom Jordan, chairman of the Ward 8 Education Council, said parents are up in arms and want “a more vigorous effort made at securing the building,” whether or not the man had permission to enter the school.
“They’re supposed to have security guards in the building, but if one has to go to lunch or the bathroom, you need someone there to back him up,” Jordan said.
Police were called to D.C. Public Schools nearly 300 times in the 2009-2010 school year, including for a rape at Anacostia’s Moten Elementary School in December 2009, according to records first obtained by TBD.com. The police report did not say if that assault happened during school hours or involved anyone connected to Moten.
