School officials in suburban Maryland will hire an outside firm to help in an investigation of reporting practices and supervision issues following a sexual assault case involving football players who allegedly attacked four of their teammates with a broomstick at Damascus High School. The superintendent said the school system has launched its own examination of the supervision of students on the day of the incident. Damascus High officials waited more than 12 hours to tell police about credible allegations of a locker room sexual assault and launched their own inquiry into what happened, according to interviews and documents. Smith did not address those issues directly in the letter or at a news briefing Monday, but spoke more generally about follow-up at Damascus. School officials said Monday that investigations are continuing and that no action has been taken against Damascus officials or employees in connection with the Oct. 31 incident.

Source: Washington Post April 15, 2019 23:37 UTC