C.C. Winn High School Female Student Assaulted in Classroom
By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2016
Students attend school to get an education and learn, but never do they go to school to get assaulted in a classroom. A C.C. Winn High School 15 year old female freshman student was assaulted by a 17 year old male student inside a classroom on February 29, 2016, sparking a traumatic nightmare in the young female student’s life.
The young female student asked her teacher if she could remain in the classroom during the lunch period to study for her STARR Test, which the teacher agreed, but the 17 year old male student noticed and decided to stay in the classroom during lunch, too.
The teacher allowed her two students stay inside the classroom during lunch to study and locked the classroom’s exterior lock with the key and went to lunch across the hallway.
After the teacher left the classroom with the two students inside, the male student approached the female student and asked her for sexual favors, which the female student vehemently declined. Upon being rejected, the male student allegedly proceeded to unzip his pants and pulled-out his penis and asked the young female student to touch it. She continuously declined the male student’s repeated requests.
The young female student became alarmed, scared, and sought to leave and escape from the classroom, but the male student grabbed the female student and stopped her from leaving and escaping from the classroom. The young female student attempted to flee and escape from the young man, but his tight grip on her arms stopped her from fleeing the classroom. She vehemently refused the male student’s requests and struggled to free herself to attempt to escape from her assailant. During this whole horrific assault, the two students were left alone and unsupervised in the classroom.
The end of the lunch period bell rang and the young female student was released by the male student and threatened her not to tell anyone or otherwise she would never hear the end of this, intimidating and creating fear within the young female student for her safety and well-being.
The young female student feared for her safety and welfare and remained silent during the day of the incident. The following day, the young female student confided in a student friend of what had happened to her and her friend advised her to report it to the school teacher. She gained confidence and reported the horrific assault to her teacher, who sent her to go see an Administrator, who in turn directed the female student to report to an Eagle Pass Independent School District Police Officer to report the incident.
The young female student was interviewed by not only one, but rather by three or four male EPISD Police Officers who requested her to repeatedly state her assault story to them without the benefit of a female EPISD Police Officer, counselor, school nurse, or her parents, causing greater depression, humiliation, desperation, and embarrassment.
The young female student and her parents have sought assistance from the Eagle Pass Independent School District, which has provided very little or ineffective assistance. The EPISD did take the young female student to a Uvalde, Texas center to make an audio recording of her assault story. To date, the young female student has not received any professional psychological and/or psychiatric assistance from the EPISD, according to her parents.
The 17 year old male student was transferred to the Disciplinary School (DAEP) for a certain period after the incident, but was allowed to return to C. C. Winn High School in May 2016 and the same classes as the young female student victim without notifying her and her parents of his return to C. C. Winn High School, causing another traumatic experience for the young lady upon encountering her assailant in class. Although a school counselor removed the male student from one class with his female victim, the counselor missed a second class shared by the two students causing the female student victim to be in the same classroom as her assailant. The female student suffered anxiety and depression as a result of this encounter with her assailant. The young female student missed several days of classes due to her well-founded fear to return to school and being further harmed by the male student assailant.
Subsequent to the horrific assault incident inside the classroom, the EPISD Police Department issued a Citation to the 17 year old male student for assault by contact, a misdemeanor, before the City of Eagle Pass, Texas Municipal Court. The male student plead guilty and/or no contest to his Citation for assault by contact and paid a $266 fine on June 9, 2016 in Municipal Court.
The 293rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office under District Attorney Roberto Serna is currently investigating the incident to determine if there are any other criminal charges which may be brought against the 17 year old male student, which under Texas law is considered an adult.
The 17 year old male student is a Lawful Permanent Resident of the United States of America and is seeking to become a naturalized U.S. Citizen. The male student will be a senior at one of two EPISD high schools.
While the criminal justice system investigates the assault incident, the young female student continues to suffer from anxiety, depression, psychological effects, loss of confidence and self-esteem, and other related matters without the benefit of any assistance from the Eagle Pass Independent School District. She and her family have been left alone to deal and handle the consequences of this horrific assault in school.
With the fast approaching back to school season, the young female student faces many concerns and fears such as whether the 17 year old male student will return to C. C. Winn High School or another school of the EPISD and what policies and procedures have been implemented by EPISD to protect female students from similar assault and/or sexual assault incidents.
This very serious assault incident within a classroom of the Eagle Pass Independent School District raises many concerns, questions, and issues regarding the safety of school children, particularly young female students, in the local public school system as well as the types of assistance and/or programs available to victims from the local public school district to overcome these traumatic experiences.
