NAACP holds press conference prompted by WBTV investigation
Speakers call on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to improve handling of sexual violence
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - The Charlotte branch of the NAACP held a press conference Tuesday to demand Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools improve its handling of reported rapes and sexual assaults.
The press conference comes days after a WBTV investigation prompted questions about the handling of a case where a five-year-old student reported being sexually assaulted on a school bus.
The girl’s report was relayed to both school administrators and police.
WBTV INVESTIGATES: Child reports being sexually assaulted on school bus. Her mom says CMS did nothing
But, according to the girl’s mom, she was made to sit next to one of the students she reported attacking her when she went back to school.
The girl’s mom said she called WBTV after getting no help from the school.
“The school district never called me, and I think that’s what several days had passed when I reached out to you because I was like, you know, I didn’t know what else to do,” she said. “The principal, she wasn’t offering any help at all.”
Annette Albright, education chair for the local NAACP chapter, led the press conference.
“We’re here, again! Time and time again, the ball has been dropped, a step has been missed,” Albright said. “It’s very simple, very general terms. Why can CMS not comply with Title IX?”
The mother of the five year old girl also spoke at Tuesday’s press conference. She reiterated what she told WBTV in her first interview: that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools administrators did nothing in response to her daughter’s reported sexual assault.
“The school system ignored us. It failed my child. My child is 5 years old,” she said.
Watch WBTV News This Morning on Wednesday at 6:30 a.m. to see interim CMS superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill answer questions about this story in a one-on-one interview with Chief Investigative Reporter Nick Ochsner.
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