Teens charged with assault for bus incident

Two freshmen at Glacier High School have been charged with misdemeanor assault for their alleged roles in a Sept. 12 incident on a freshman football bus.

Charges were filed Friday in Flathead County Youth Court against Logan Robert Jones and Charles Victor Calobeer, both 15.

The charges were filed against the two students for “purposely or knowingly causing bodily injury and/or reasonable apprehension of bodily injury” to four other students, according to court documents.

They are charged with restraining, punching and attempting to physically penetrate the alleged victims.

Jones and Calobeer are the only students who will face charges in connection with the bus incident, according to Vicki Eggum, administrator for the Flathead County Attorney’s Office.

An investigation by School Resource Officer Jason Parce of the Kalispell Police Department found that numerous assaults to four students happened on the bus somewhere between Ronan and Kalispell. The bus was returning from a game in Missoula.

According to charging documents, Jones and Calobeer dragged three students out of their seats and down the aisle to the back of the bus and “dog piled” on them, in some cases assisted by at least one other student.

A fourth student walked to the back of the bus on his own after resisting initial efforts to drag him back by Jones, Calobeer and another student identified only as “T.P.” in the charging documents. The student had stopped resisting after feeling pain from the initial assault and walked to the back of the bus after being warned by Jones that it would be worse in the locker room if he didn’t do so, the documents said.

At the back of the bus, Calobeer allegedly held the students down while Jones attempted to physically penetrate them with a finger through their clothes.

One student told Parce that he was dragged out of his seat and to the back of the bus three separate times by Calobeer and Jones. The student said they punched him in the testicles the first time and with closed fists in the groin the second time.

The third time, Calobeer allegedly held the student face down while Jones placed a finger in him from outside his clothing. The student reported feeling penetration, according to the charging documents.

Several of the students told Parce that they did not yell out or scream because they were afraid they would be hurt even more, or because either Jones or Calobeer had their hands over their mouths.

“He did not scream for help because he was afraid of what else would happen to him,” the court document says of one of the alleged victims.

Another of the alleged victims related that “he told them to stop but they would not. He felt fingers jabbing all over his body and he felt Logan Robert Jones try to place a finger in his anus through his clothing. He did not yell because he was told this was part of being initiated.”

Parce had recommended that sexual assault charges be filed against the two alleged assailants.

Eggum said Monday that sexual assault charges were not filed “because policemen are policemen and lawyers interpret the statutes more appropriately.”

Six students were suspended from school in connection with the bus incident and were kicked off the freshman football team, which went on to have an undefeated season.

All but one of the students have returned to school. The other student was expelled by the school board until the end of the quarter on Oct. 28.

If convicted, the teens face up to $500 in fines and six months in the county jail, according to the charging documents.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.