Upstate elementary school sexual assault case heads to trial

A trial is expected to be scheduled this fall in connection with two lawsuits filed against a government-run school district in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, alleging classroom sexual assault… a primary school.

According to the complaints, educators who lead that district “failed to correct sexually suggestive and inappropriate behavior by second graders toward other second graders.”

The lawsuits were filed by an attorney in the S.C. Seventh Circuit Tyler Rody from Spartanburg, SC on behalf of Ansley Lane And Casey Gillespie – and also on behalf of two minor children who are under her guardianship.

The lawsuits, filed in June 2022, allege two minor children were sexually abused by another minor child “in the computer lab.” Shoally Creek Elementary Schoola public school in Boiling Springs, SC Shoally Creek is part of Spartanburg County’s Second School District – one of Seven Spartanburg County School Districts.

The two minor children were in second grade at the time of the first alleged assaults, which reportedly occurred on November 5, 2021.

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Two days later, on November 7, 2021, Gillespie wrote an email to the former principal of Shoally Creek Laura MeyerSchool counselor Rebekah Robinson and second grade teacher Erin Watson to let them know what happened. She copied Lane in that email.

According to her lawsuit, Gillespie never received a response from Meyer or Robinson (.pdf), but Watson responded to the email saying that one of the two alleged victims told her that the child in question “wasn’t keeping his hands to himself.” could, “But that she “had no idea that he had touched her private parts.”

According to both lawsuits, Watson then went on maternity leave in early February 2022 and a substitute teacher – Cara Thompson – replaced her in the classroom. Shortly afterwards, another alleged attack occurred.

On February 8, 2022, the minor child who allegedly committed the November 2021 attack “held a pencil near his crotch and stroked the pencil in a sexually suggestive manner while looking at (the two children).”

The following day, February 9, 2022, Lane and Gillespie “had a conference call” with Principal Meyer. At that meeting, they “discussed the incidents of sexual assault in the classroom and the behavior of minor children who engaged in sexually suggestive and disruptive acts in the classroom.” Meyer allegedly “informed parents that she would take appropriate action to address the sexual assault and to put an end to disruptive behavior in the classroom,” the lawsuits say.

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However, the alleged behavior did not end. According to the lawsuits, among Thompson and another substitute teacher – Katelyn Nicholson – In the following weeks, several more incidents occurred in which one of the students was “continuously sexually abused.”

Both deputies resigned from their positions during the period in which the alleged sexual abuse occurred, the lawsuits say. On March 23, 2022, Lane removed the minor child she was caring for from Shoally Creek on the advice of the child’s pediatrician – and opted for “learning at home.”

News of the two lawsuits was first reported by Bethany Fowler from WSPA TV-7 (CBS – Greenville/Spartanburg).

According to the complaints, school and district officials knew the two children “were at risk of being sexually abused again” after the initial incident, but “chose not to take action to prevent further assaults.”

Our media has received additional information on this story, which we are currently investigating. Stay tuned for more information in future reports…

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THE LAWSUITS…

(SC Seventh Judicial District)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Want people is the founding editor of the news organization you are currently reading. Before founding FITSNews, he was press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and, before that, a bass guitarist and bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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