If Crystal Lakes Middle School doesn't cough up some details soon about why its security specialist, who appears to beat up a female student in the video below, hasn't been disciplined -- or thoroughly investigated -- for the altercation, the girl's father, Robert Donald, will take this thing to court.
Donald recently hired a lawyer, Peter Hanna, who's now taken over the talking. The video "is very disturbing in that it shows a grown man beating, shoving, and throwing a defenseless 12-year-old girl to the ground," Hanna wrote to the Crystal Lakes administration. "The video also shows the grown man on top of the 12-year-old victim as she lay beaten and bloodied on the ground."
Hanna said the girl, Raenesha Donald, didn't do anything to deserve the punishment -- and even if she had, security guard Trevor Allen's apparent violence was gratuitous. Then, adding even more outrage, he said, the school made the whole thing disappear. "The principal is just covering it up," he said. "You would think they'd be opening a full investigation; it's unbelievable that they haven't done anything."
Take a look for yourself:
Sabine Phillips, Crystal Lakes principal, hasn't responded to repeated interview requests.
Tracy Clark, spokesperson for the Broward County School District, said the district administration didn't know anything about the altercation between the student and Allen, calling it a "school level" decision to keep Allen. She said she didn't know whether he's a union member or how prospective security guards get screened before they're hired.
Clark said the school's principal had already met with the parents, but, apparently, that wasn't enough for Robert Donald -- or his lawyer. Hanna says that he's demanding to know more about Allen but that no one at the school has responded to any of his inquiries. "Is this just an untrained person doing what he wants to do and enforcing his own laws?"
New Times has filed several public records requests to find out more. We'll update the post when we hear back.
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