Minnesota principal who allowed boy to remain in class with two students he's accused of sexually assaulting calls cops on parent who confronted him about decision
A Minnesota principal who allowed a boy accused of sexually assaulting two classmates to remain in school vowed to punish students if they staged a walkout - and then called cops on a concerned mom who questioned his decision to let the boy prowl the same hallways as the alleged victims.
Parents in Zimmerman, a town about 40 miles north of Minneapolis, were left fuming at not only Principal Marco Voce but at the school board after it refused to address the allegations during a meeting on Monday.
Meantime, students at Zimmerman Middle/High School staged a walkout last Friday to express their dismay and were warned by Voce that they could be suspended for participating and breaking district rules.
Cassie Bonine, whose daughter is a student at the high school, attended Monday night’s Independent School District 728's board meeting with hopes of asking questions, but learned none would be answered.
‘We were all denied,’ she told DailyMail.com on Thursday. ‘None of us were allowed to speak at the meeting.’
Bosine said she later encountered Voce on her way to the restroom.
Zimmerman Middle/High School Principal Marco Voce warned students not to stage a walkout over decision to let a boy accused of sexually assaulting two students to remain in school. He then called cops on a parent who questioned his decision, informing her that she is no longer allowed on school grounds
Zimmerman Middle-High School students staged a walkout last Friday to protest an alleged rapist attending classes at the school, which two of his accusers also attend
She asked Voce why he hadn’t responded to an email she sent five days earlier regarding the sexual assault.
He claimed he hadn’t received it, she said, adding that she rushed to the bathroom after becoming tearful.
She emerged from the bathroom and showed him the email on her phone.
‘I then asked him if he had children. He said he had two daughters,’ she said. ‘And I asked him what if it were your daughters? How would you feel in this situation?’
Days later, there was a knock at Bosine’s front door.
It was sheriffs visiting to hand her a trespassing notification, forbidding her from going onto the school property for the next year.
It says: ‘The trespass notice is given due to your verbal altercation with principal Marco Voce, which you instigated, was witnessed by others and was acknowledged on social media’ and was considered to be aggressive, intimidating and inappropriate.’
Bosine received a trespassing notice after attending a school board meeting and approaching the school principal with concerns about how the allegations were being handled
Bosine admitting to raising her voice but refuted being aggressive or threatening.
‘And now I am no longer allowed to step foot on the school grounds that my daughter attends,’ she said.
‘I can't drop her off. I can't pick her up. I can't attend her volleyball games. I can't go to her conferences. If she's sick, I can't go there. If she's injured, I can't go there.’
She said she is now working to transfer her daughter to a different district.
Zimmerman students are pictured calling for more rights for sexual assault survivors
Ahead of last Friday's walkout in protest of the alleged sex assaults, the principal warned students that they could face consequences for participating.
‘ISD 728 does not condone, support, or sponsor student walkouts,’ Voce said in a letter to parents.
‘… students who participate in a walkout that violates any ISD 728 policy, which includes any type of bullying, harassment, discrimination etc., may receive significant discipline which could include out of school suspension.’
The warning didn’t stop students from walking out of class last Friday holding signs with messages such as: ‘ISD 728 how would you like to be in class with your rapist?’
Details of the alleged assaults are unclear.
The school sent out an email ahead of the rally, warning students that they could be suspended for participating
The Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Voce.
None of the ISD 728 board members responded to a DailyMail.com inquiry.
Other parents who attended the board meeting Monday were also upset that they were not given the opportunity to express their concerns.
‘I just think that’s horrible,’ parent Beth McClelland said on TikTok.
Friday's protest was followed on Monday by a school board meeting, which parents attended with hopes of asking questions about the alleged assaults
They said they were not allowed to ask questions during the meeting
‘I’m not sure if I’m being out of line, but I just feel like if you were a parent of a child who sexually assaulted another person, why would you even want them at that school?
‘Their reputation is going to be probably pretty terrible and as a parent, you’d want to respect the victim. The victim shouldn’t have to change her life.’
School districts throughout the nation have been under fire in recent months for alleged sexual assault coverups and secrecy.
Organizers circulated this rally ahead of last Friday's scheduled walkout
A 15-year-old North Carolina girl was suspended from high school - and ordered to take a class called ‘sexual harassment is preventable’ - after she reported being sexually assaulted by a male classmate, according to a report.
The Charlotte teen, whose identity was protected due to the nature of the case, told a local media station that she was harassed nearly every day by a fellow Hawthorne Academy High School student.
She reported his behavior after it escalated.
The girl's mom said she fears the district's response to the case will make other sexual assault victims afraid to come forward
She's a student at Hawthorne Academy High School in Charlotte, North Carolina
‘He would, like, come into the bathroom and he would push me into the stall,’ the girl told WBTV. ‘He put his hands in my pants and then he was like touching my breasts.’
She said she initially reported the assault to the school, which handed the file over to police, who confirmed to WBTV that a minor was charged with sexual battery as a result of her complaint.
The formal charge didn’t stop school administrators from accusing the victim of filing a false report and issuing a one-day suspension last month, the girl’s mother said.
“The school did their investigation, gave me a phone call, and said, ‘Hey, look, unfortunately, it looks like there’s no evidence that shows that what your daughter saying took place,’ the mother said.
‘[They told me] ‘We’re going to have to give her a day of suspension, so then I asked the principal, “Well if the police are telling me that he did do these things, he admitted to them, and that I have the right to press charges, you’re telling me this didn’t happen?” And she said, “Well, unfortunately, what the law does has nothing to do to do with CMS, so, unfortunately, we have nothing else that we can do about this.”’
In October, the furious parents of a 15-year-old high schooler said they were suing Loudon County in Virginia after their daughter was allegedly raped by a 'skirt-wearing male student' in a 'gender fluid' school bathroom.
Jess and Scott Smith allege that the district attempted to cover up the alleged assault. They claim that Superintendent Scott Ziegler alleged there was no record of the May 28 incident at Stonebridge High School in Leesburg, Virginia, despite Loudoun County Sheriff's office conducting a two-month long investigation into the allegations.
Scoot (left) and Jess Smith (right) are suing Loudon County under the provisions of Title X after their 15-year-old daughter was allegedly raped by a 'skirt-wearing male student' in a 'gender fluid' restroom at Stone Bridge High School in Leesburg, Virginia on May 28
The Smiths also allege an attempted cover-up, saying that Superintendent Scott Ziegler claimed 'we don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms' even though the sheriff's Office was investigating the allegations (Pictured: Stone Bridge High School)
The alleged attacker, who has not been named, but is also 15 years-old, is further accused of carrying out another attack at Broad Run High School in Loudoun County on October 6, and was in custody.
The Smiths are suing under the provisions of Title IX of the United States' federal civil rights law — which prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational institutions.
'The sexual assault our daughter endured should never happen to any young girl, or any child, attending a public school,' the Smiths said in a press release about the suit that was obtained by Fox News.
Their lawyer, Brian Stanley, said his firm intends to 'protect the interests of their daughter at every turn' and 'will pursue federal Title IX actions against the local government and all officials who are responsible for allowing this harm' to come to the girl.
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