Charlotte School Reports 6-Year Old Special Needs Child to Police For Sexual Crimes.
- Sloan Rachmuth
- May 11, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: May 12, 2022
Father seeks answers after school officials cleared his son for distributing pornography, then accuse him of sexual assault in a disputed incident with no witnesses and file a report with the police.
By: Sloan Rachmuth
After his six-year-old special needs son was accused of acts of sexual misconduct, the father of a Charlotte boy wants answers and action.
The boy's father reported that officials at Torrence Creek Elementary questioned him for over an hour before contacting him, and the incident will have a lasting effect on him.
“He had no idea that anything had happened, or that anything was wrong,” Greg Pearce said.
Pearce was stunned when his first-grade son was accused of distributing pornography to his class last week. By the time he was notified, his son had already undergone extensive questioning, and the Assistant Principal had already filed a sexual harassment complaint with the district liaison.
According to the school’s report, the child was at his desk watching a video on his personal tablet he had made of himself (at home) using the potty, while saying the “S” word. Classmates walked by his desk, they caught a glimpse of the video.
“He didn't make anyone watch this video. He made this video at home, not in school. He made it months before he brought his tablet to school,” Pearce said. “He was sitting at a table watching it because he thought it was funny and some kids overlooking his shoulder saw it and one told the teacher who brought it to the principal's attention.”
Pearce said he was contacted by school principal Jason Bissinger and told that his son “showed an inappropriate video of himself to a number of students" and would receive a 1 day suspension. In addition, Bissinger told the father that his son would be removed from his class because he was no longer permitted to speak with students who had seen the video.
Principal Bissinger assured Pearce that his son’s incident would not be treated as an official Title IX violation which would be recorded at the district level, and later with the US Department of Education as a civil rights violation.
Bissinger brushed the incident off, telling the father that he spoke with the parents of the children who saw the video and that they were all amused because their boys do silly things too. All of them were satisfied with the child’s new class placement and did not want to pursue any further disciplinary actions.
However, Pearce’'s son received close to the maximum punishment for Title IX violations according to the CMS Student Handbook.
Pearce says that, days later, school officials met with him to reassure him that they knew his son did not create this video with sexual intent or show it to anyone with intent to harass. "It was a stupid mistake by a 6-year-old who had no intention of harming anyone or even knowing what exposing himself means," they told Pearce just moments before informing him of the school's duty to report his son.
Pearce says he was told the complaint would not follow him into his academic career and that it would be kept on record in a "sealed file nobody can access." Later, he discovered through CMS sources that officials have access to Title IX files in order to determine a "balance of good and bad students" in classroom assignments.
Pearce learned that officials were considering reporting his son for sexual harassment or showing/distributing pornographic material. According to the school’s final outcome statement, the school decided to cite the First Grader for misuse of technology, likely because of his father’s proactive involvement.
Pearce's son was diagnosed with severe ADHD by his family doctor at the start of his son's Kindergarten year in September of 2020. Pierce provided Principal Bissenger with a doctor's note and repeatedly advocated for instructional modifications to ensure that his son was in an ideal learning environment.
During his son's first year at Torrence Creek, Pearce says that his request was honored and his son was both socially and academically successful. Pearce has repeatedly requested assistance from school officials, but his son does not appear to have received any classroom modifications this year.
But officials at Torrence Elementary School had more in store for the Pearce family. Last week, the day the school handed Pearce its Final Outcome Statement, his son was charged with another Title IX Violation - sexual assault. The 6-year-old adamantly denies the allegations of the incident in which there were no witnesses.
Today Pearce received a call from a police investigator who told him that Principal Bessinger filed a police report alleging his son had distributed illicit content to his classmates - 17 days after the incident and 4 days after the school determined that the 6-year-old had been found not guilty of the crime. The officer told Pearce that school officials had also filed a separate complaint with Child Protective Services. Both agencies declined to investigate according to Pearce.
Part one of a two-part series. Part two published tomorrow.
Watch Sloan's live interview with Greg Pearce tonight at 8 PM.
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