Asheville City Schools crimes: weapons, rapes not reported to NC School Board?
ASHEVILLE - David Frary's son was 5 when he was sexually battered by an older student in the bathroom of his elementary school, according to a 2019 police report and details from Frary.
"It was not a game. My son was terrified. He was shouting for help," Frary told the Citizen Times, saying a female teacher had to go into the Isaac Dickson Elementary bathroom to intervene.
Frary chose not to proceed with a criminal court case, saying he didn't want to put his son through that process. A version of the police report with some names redacted due to juvenile legal protections continues to exist as a public record.
But a Citizen Times investigation now shows it was not recorded in an important place in state records.
In total, the investigation found at least 39 alleged crimes over five years at Asheville City Schools ― including rapes, robbery with a firearm and assaults inflicting serious injury ― that were in Asheville Police Department reports but were not part of the annual accounting to the General Assembly. The school years examined by the Citizen Times ranged from 2017-2021, though included one report from 2022.
North Carolina law requires that all public schools notify top state officials when "acts of violence occur at schools." In its interpretation of the law, the N.C. School Board has included the violent acts in "16 reportable criminal offenses" along with some non-violent crimes that schools must convey. Those are compiled into the yearly Consolidated Data Report, a public document used for assessing safety of schools by education officials, legislators and parents.
"In order for learning to occur in a classroom, students need to be engaged and know that they are safe and supported by the adults in their school building," state education officials say in the latest report to the General Assembly published in March.
For Isaac Dickson, located in the north Asheville neighborhood of Montford, the annual 2018-19 N.C. School Board crime report shows four assaults on school personnel − but there is no mention of a sexual assault of Frary's son, despite the incident appearing to meet the definition of a reportable offense.
N.C. General Statute 115C-12 (21)
Criminal offenses to be reported to the state school board and legislators:
Assault causing serious personal injury
Assault with a weapon, assault on school officials, bomb threats
Willfully burning a school building
Homicide
Kidnapping
Possession of alcohol
Possession of a firearm
Possession of a weapon
Rape
Robbery with a dangerous weapon
Sexual assault
Sexual offense
Taking indecent liberties with a minor.
"That upsets me," said Frary, who said he had to report the incident to police because then-principal Brad Johnson refused to. "As a parent, my No. 1 job is to keep my child safe. So when I send them to school I can’t be there to do that, and now it’s on the faculty to keep children safe. If something happens and they're not reporting it, then there can't be an accurate assessment of what measures are necessary to keep our children safe in schools."
Broken skull?
Another city schools incident that police labeled an "aggravated assault" shocked Lucy S. Herring Elementary parents over the trauma they said was inflicted on a fourth-grade student. But it also got no mention in the state report.
On June 6, 2022, the student's skull was broken by another fourth-grader, according to adults with children at the school, including Rob Pope and Sally Grau. Pope's and Grau's children were not involved, but the two said in emails to top city schools officials, including school board members and then-superintendent Gene Freeman that details had been shared widely among parents. Grau declined to comment on this story. The Citizen Times also reached out to Pope. A parent of the child declined to comment.
A parent who asked not to be named to protect their children, said they were closely involved with the school through volunteering and were shocked the 2021-22 state report for Lucy Herring showed zero reportable criminal offenses.
The Citizen Times is withholding the names of juveniles involved. In certain cases it is withholding parents' names at their request to protect their children.
"I know from all accounts that I’ve heard, this wasn’t an accident. This was an intentional act," the parent said. "A child ends up in the hospital with a cracked skull. Police were called. If that's not an assault, I don't know what is."
The Citizen Times reached out to the principals in charge at the time of the incidents at Isaac Dickson and Lucy Herring. Former Isaac Dickson Principal Brad Johnson ― now principal of West Buncombe Elementary with Buncombe County Schools ― referred questions to BCS communications spokespeople to whom the Citizen Times reached out Dec. 11.
Former Lucy Herring Principal Ruletta Hughes ― now principal at Isaac Dickson ― did not respond to a request for comment.
But school system administration staff did respond, acknowledging reporting gaps.
What state numbers say about city schools', other systems' safety
Through a public records request, the Citizen Times obtained more than 500 police reports of incidents at city schools. Those were compared to the school system's annual reports to the state school board, resulting in finding the 39 potentially reportable crimes that did not appear in the school crime reports. The Citizen Times attempted to reach people listed in the incident reports regarding violent crimes, such as rapes, sexual assaults and assaults inflicting serious injuries.
Because the investigation was limited to Asheville City Schools, it is unclear whether such gaps existed in any of the state's other 328 school systems and charter schools ― or how big any such gaps were.
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The N.C. Consolidated Data Report says Asheville City Schools is safer than most school systems, with 19 criminal offenses in 2021-22, an average of 4.6 out of 1,000 students.
The state average is 7.5. The worst rate was in the three schools for the deaf and blind with 124 per 1,000 students, followed by KIPP Durham College Preparatory at 55. Buncombe County Schools was in the top 12% for criminal acts with 10.7 per 1,000.
It is unclear how Asheville City School's rate would be affected with the addition of any of the excluded incidents found by the Citizen Times.
Private schools, which receive more than $100 million in state tax revenue through a voucher program ― an amount set to grow with new legislation ― have no such crime reporting requirements.
More: More allegations of sexual assault at Asheville School emerge: police reports
Public schools that report at least two violent acts and five or more violent acts per thousand students in two consecutive years and where “conditions that contributed to the commission of those offenses are likely to continue into another school year” may be deemed "Persistently Dangerous Schools" by the state school board. No schools have ever received that designation.
Investigation spurs reporting changes
While principals declined to comment, Asheville City Schools administration officials responded in emails and in-person. City Schools spokesperson April Dockery first told the Citizen Times Nov. 21 that the 39 incidents were not crimes and therefore not reportable.
"Reports to the State Board of Education are only made when a crime or offense is found to have happened. By contrast, reports to law enforcement are made to determine whether such crimes or offenses happened," Dockery said.
When later asked about some of the specific incidents, including the sexual battery police reported with Frary's child and the assault at Lucy Herring, Dockery said while police may have continued to investigate them, they did not meet schools' definitions of reportable crimes.
With sexual battery, "the perpetrator must have committed the act 'for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification or sexual abuse,'" she said. "It is generally difficult to establish that young, elementary-aged children committed an act for any of those purposes."
"Based on the fact that the child alleged to have committed such an act did not meet all of the elements, a report would not have been filed by the school," she said.
Similarly, she said fondling wouldn't qualify as a reportable sex offense since it does not meet the definition of a sexual act.
Dockery, also said an "aggravated assault," as police said occurred at Lucy Herring, isn't one of the 16 reportable offenses. She did not address parents' reports of the skull fracture, which would make the incident reportable as an "assault resulting in serious personal injury."
More: BB gun brought to an Asheville elementary school prompts parent to demand action
"Sometimes parents are unhappy with the school’s determination that a crime did not occur and take it upon themselves to file a police report. This may be the case with a multitude of the incidents you have identified, but again we could not discuss specifics even if we had that information," she said.
A different state law requires schools to report certain criminal acts to law enforcement. But parents or others can also, with knowledge of crimes at schools, make reports themselves to police.
Dockery said reporting requirements are taken "very seriously" and that even those not reported were investigated thoroughly
But in a Dec. 11 interview, Superintendent Maggie Fehrman said after questions raised by the Citizen Times, she asked for a intensive review of reporting. Fehrman, who came from Georgia to take the helm of city schools July 17, said she found types of incidents for which a principal "did not make a report" that she was now requiring to be reported.
"I said we are going to do our due diligence and report it," she said. "Just because that is what we are required to do by policy."
Fehrman in the interview said she did not recall what the unreported incidents were.
She said city schools had unusual safety concerns, including bears on campus and unhoused people who sometimes tried to stay on school property.
"So we're living in a city and we have to deal with safety issues that come with living in a city but I think for the most part, our schools are very safe," she said.
Determining a crime; sex crimes underreported in general
It is difficult, if not impossible for the public and media to know the resolution of juvenile cases due to special state laws protecting child victims and alleged child offenders. But according to parents and a sexual assault expert it is unlikely all 39 incidents found in the investigation were non-crimes.
If police write an incident report but later determine a crime did not happen, they will note it as "unfounded" or "crime was not committed," APD spokesperson Samantha Booth said. That was true with a 2017 bomb threat at Asheville High, which was listed as "unfounded." The incident was not reported to the state and the Citizen Times did not count it among the unreported incidents.
Among the 39 police reported incidents not reported to the state, were 10 reports saying "prosecution declined." These included a rape, an assault inflicting serious injury, another bomb threat and a kidnapping.
More: 3 Tasers found at Asheville Middle School in one day, principal says
District Attorney Todd Williams declined to address specific cases but said one reason his office would decline prosecution would be that a crime did not occur. But there are other reasons for declining prosecution besides absence of a crime, Williams said. That includes "lack of credible evidence to support all of the elements of a crime, victim/witness unavailability or pursuant to a victim’s request that the matter not be charged," the DA said.
N.C. Department of Public Instruction Deputy Communications Director Jeanie McDowell pointed to a manual given to principals that said "many cases will result in an arrest or a juvenile petition; however, these actions are not necessary conditions of the requirement to report."
When in doubt, "consultations with the investigating law enforcement officer are recommended," McDowell said.
A sex offense against the daughter of Eric Controne was another of the 39 incidents found in police reports but not the state report.
Controne's child was 11 when another child fondled her against her will at Lucy Herring in 2021, according to Controne and the police report. It was the kind of experience about which the father said he was reluctant to give details because of worries about his "now teen daughter." But he felt it was important that it be part of a record.
"It definitely should be reported," he said. "Without it, there will be a lot people who won't know and will be wondering what is going on in their schools."
Of the 39 incidents, 21, or more than half, were rapes, sexual assaults or sex offenses. The number of sex crimes in that group is not surprising, a local sexual violence expert said, noting that type of crime is prevalent and normally undercounted.
"We know that only 20% of sexual violence is reported to law enforcement," said Rita Sneider-Cotter, director Our Voice, an Asheville nonprofit sexual assault crisis center. "We also know that 1 in 5 girls experienced sexual violence in the last year and 1 in 10 girls have been forced to have sex during their lifetime." Sexual offenses at schools are considered violations of federal Title IX rules that local school officials are required to investigate.
More: Former Asheville Middle School teacher's aide named in alleged sexual assault of stepchild
The school district conducted three Title IX investigations in the 2021-22 school year and one as of the fall of 2022-23, according to city schools spokesperson Dockery. The Citizen Times requested an update on any new investigations.
Sneider-Cotter, along with parents and school employee advocates say the reporting gap does not necessarily mean the city schools are more dangerous than other school systems. But they say accuracy in reporting is important for multiple reasons, including the allocation of state and local resources to fix problems.
Hall Fletcher Elementary parent and chaplain Michael Hall said minority students have historically faced the most punishment in school anti-crime efforts. Hall, who is Black, said it is important to try to help students before any crimes are committed. But he also said violent incidents "need to be dealt with" and records of them should be accurate.
"I would like to know, as a parent," Hall said.
Tim Lloyd, president of the Asheville City Schools Educators' Association, said he feared reporting about crime could be twisted into a narrative that the schools were very dangerous, something he said was not true.
"But when it deals with knowing about the safety of children and also staff it is very important," Lloyd said.
Frary said it's about accountability and taking care of child victims and also child perpetrators, who were likely victims themselves. He said it is also, in the case of his son, about not shrugging off the opinions of police and a forensic nurse who interviewed his son.
"All of the trained professionals agreed that a crime had been committed. For school officials to then say that the APD is wrong and for the school to make its own determination is, in my opinion, a crime."
What didn’t get reported to state
N.C. law requires that any of 16 criminal offenses at public schools be reported to the state school board. But a Citizen Times investigation comparing police incident reports to state reports shows 39 unreported Asheville City Schools incidents from 2017-2021. They include police reports of rape, serious assaults and possession of weapons. It is not clear if similar gaps exist at other schools around the state. Asheville City Schools said the unreported incidents did not turn out to be crimes. Something parents with close knowledge of some cases dispute. Superintendent Maggie Fehrman later said there were incidents that should have been reported. Juvenile protections make it difficult to know details and resolution of many incidents.
Ira B. Jones Elementary
Sex offense (2018-19) APD
Lucy S. Herring Elementary
Assault resulting in serious personal injury (2021-22)
Sex offense (2021-22)
Kidnapping (2017-18)
Arson (2017-18)
Isaac Dickson Elementary
Possession of a weapon (2019-20)
Assault on school employee (2019-20)
Assault on school employee (2019-20)
Kidnapping (2019-20)
Sexual offense (fondling) (2019-20)
Sexual offense (fondling) (2019-20)
Sexual battery (2018-19)
Assault inflicting serious injury (2017-18)
Montford North Star Academy
Sex offense (2018-19)
Claxton Elementary
Sex offense (2021-22)
Sexual battery (2019-20)
Fondling/sex offense (2019-20)
Fondling sex offense (2019-20)
Sex offense (2018-19)
Sex offense (2017-18)
Hall Fletcher Elementary
Robbery with a firearm (2019-20)
Assault inflicting serious injury (2018-19)
Asheville Middle
Sex offense (2019-20)
Sex offense (2018-19)
Sexual battery (2018-19)
Asheville High
Rape (2021-22)
Sex offense (2021-22)
Drug offense (2019-20)
Possession of a weapon (2019-20)
Sex offense (2019-20)
Rape (2019-20)
Drug offense (2018-19)
Drug offense (2018-19)
Assault with a deadly weapon (2018-19)
Bomb threat (2017-18)
Sexual battery (2017-18)
Sexual battery (2017-18)
Sexual battery (2017-18)
Assault inflicting serious injury (2017-18)
Need help?
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted and needs help or resources, contact:
Our Voice: (For ages 13 and older) 828-255-7576, www.ourvoicenc.org.
Mountain Child Advocacy Center: (For ages 17 and younger), 828-213-9824, https://mtncac.org.
RAINN: (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) 800-656-4673, www.rainn.org.
Family Justice Center: 35 Woodfin St., Asheville. 828-250-6900, buncombecounty.org.
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Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Has your child had a similar experience at Asheville City Schools or other schools Please let us know? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville school violence: weapons, rapes not reported?
