Dietrich Mayor Don Heiken is speaking out following a sexual assault lawsuit against the school district.
The family of a black, disabled student filed the lawsuit after three white students allegedly sexually assaulted the boy in the locker room after football practice. According to the lawsuit, the student was tricked into giving a teammate a hug, but instead two others, 17-year-old Tanner Ward and 18-year-old John Howard, raped him with a coat hanger. Both Ward and Howard have been charged as adults, with felony penetration by use of a foreign object.
(18-year-old John Howard)
Now Mayor Heiken says the bullying had been going on for months and the coach and some staff knew about it but did nothing. He says he feels the coach and these people should be fired.
Here’s a copy of the email:
Katelyn,
I have lived in this little town for over 64 years and this is the first time that this sort of thing has ever happened. As the mayor I really don’t have any control on what happens at the school. They are governed by the school board. They all have strict guidelines about bullying and they broke the rules. The bullying of this young student had been going on for months and the coach and some of the staff knew about it and did nothing. I think that the coach and these people should be fired. I believe if they had put a stop to this earlier this travesty wouldn’t have happened.
When this assault happened the school tried to sweep it under the rug so to speak and said nothing because 2 of the teens that did this were 2 of their best football players and they didn’t want them to be kicked off of the team. Dietrich has always had a lot of pride in their sports teams. The only thing wrong with that is if you are not on the team or don’t want to play sports the kids on the teams will bully the kids that don’t want to play. This even happened when both of my children were in high school back in the 1990’s. My son finally started playing football so they would leave him alone. My daughter was locked in a room for hours because she didn’t want to play sports. As the mayor I believe that I feel the same way as do most of the other people in town. This kind of thing should never have happened. I just hope that the school, which I graduated from stops this kind of thing from happening again. This is a nice quiet little town and I would like for it to stay that way.
Thanks for your concern.
Mayor
Don Heiken
