Mom speaks out about bus incident

Now nine days after an incident of alleged sexual assault on a Glacier High School freshmen football bus, a mother of one of the victims is talking.

The mother is worried that what took place on the bus will be swept under the rug by the school’s administration, and shared what she knows of what happened. She also confirmed that she and some other parents are planning on filing a civil lawsuit against the suspects pending the results of a criminal investigation.

According to the woman, the incident is far from the “harassment/bullying/intimidation type of action” described by Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Darlene Schottle.

The mother provided the most detailed account of what reportedly happened on the bus so far, based on her conversations with her son and parents of other victims. (According to longstanding Inter Lake policy, victims of alleged sexual assaults and their family members are not identified by the newspaper.)

The boy’s mother said that the incident occurred between 9 and 9:30 p.m., while both of the coaches on the bus were sleeping as it headed back to Kalispell from Missoula. The radio was on, and windows on the bus were down — as it had been 95 degrees in Missoula that day — making it very noisy.

At some point, several students crawled underneath the bench seats to the front of the bus and grabbed her son and other victims by their ankles, dragging them underneath the seats back to the rear of the bus. The victims were then pinned down by several students, had their mouths covered and were told if they told anyone what was about to happen they would make it worse in the locker room.

The victims were then, she said, pummeled by several students, while one in particular grabbed the victims in a sexual manner and attempted to physically penetrate them through their clothes with a finger. She said eight victims in total were attacked and molested by six students, three of whom were supposedly leading the charge.

The bus driver thought something was going on, she said, but wasn’t sure, as it was dark, so the driver didn’t pull over or wake up the coaches. According to another woman, whose daughter was on the bus at the time, her daughter eventually woke up the coaches and told them what was going on. That girl’s mother claimed such incidents have been going on since August.

The victim’s mother said the incident can’t be classified as simply bullying.

“I’m a bit concerned that it’s being called hazing and bullying; this is well beyond hazing and bullying,” she said. “This is not like they taped him to a chair and put a jock strap on his head.”

According to the boy’s mother, the students involved were suspended for only eight days and kicked off the football team, which she and parents of other victims believe is unacceptable.

“Everyone is appalled these kids are coming back to school before the criminal investigation is completed,” she said. “They were kicked off the football team, but they are going to allow them to play winter sports and spring sports? Give me a break. What parent in their right mind wants their kid on the same team with those other kids?”

She is worried about retaliation against her son and other victims, and has already filed for a temporary protective order against the students involved for her son, as has at least one other family for their son, she said. In particular, she is upset that the school has offered no help at all.

“They have offered nothing,” she said. “They have offered no counseling services, they have offered no support, nothing. They’ve offered nothing, just their good word that they’re going to take care of it.”

In fact, she said, Glacier High School Principal Callie Langohr, during a meeting with her, her son, her husband and School Resource Officer Jason Parce, kept pressing her son to say whether he was mad. She said her son replied, “I’m not mad, I’m scared,” a response she said they didn’t understand. She said she then posed the same situation to Parce, asking what he would do if he were attacked in such a manner.

“And then what if they got an eight-day suspension from work, and then you had to go work with them?” she said as she recounted her conversation with Parce. “We don’t even expect adults to do what we’re asking these kids to do. Of course they’re scared.”

The mother of the girl who was on the bus also shared her disbelief that the school has not offered professional counseling for both the victims and the students responsible. She went so far as to claim that Schottle and Langohr were actively trying to cover up the incident.

Schottle was out of the office Tuesday and unavailable for comment on the school’s investigation or the women’s allegations. Langohr did not return messages left at the school.

The victim’s mother said what she wants most now is communication from school administrators on what is going on, what their next steps are and what they’re doing to protect her son and the other victims and to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.

“The school needs to be communicating with the parents so we’re not wondering, ‘Are they really doing something or are they just waiting for it to die down?’” she said.

She also said administrators should be addressing the rest of the student body to do something about what she called “vicious rumors” going around the school through students who don’t know the details of what happened.

A school investigation has been completed, but Parce is still conducting a criminal investigation for the Kalispell Police Department. After that is completed, a decision will be made on whether any charges are to be filed against the suspects.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.