Boy, 12, Accused of Sex Assault on Girl at Longfellow

A 13-year-old girl told a teacher she was sexually assaulted by a 12-year-old boy in a stairwell during lunch period at Longfellow Middle School, and later told investigators that it wasn't the first time, according to police reports.

In fact, the girl told a social worker and police officers, she and the boy had been meeting daily in the stairwell just off the cafeteria for two weeks, engaging in varying degrees of physical contact, before he went too far and made her uncomfortable.

A police report described the location as "just outside the cafeteria" in "an alternate and enclosed stairwell that is seldom used."

According to the reports:

Just after the lunch period on March 14, the girl went to a teacher and said that the boy had made her perform sex acts against her will. The teacher took her to Associate Principal Jason Zurawik to report the incident. Zurawik listened to the girl's story and called police.

Zurawik told officers the student had related that before the end of the lunch period, the boy had taken her by the hand and pulled her toward the stairwell, saying "Follow me." The girl, Zurawik said, told him she knew they were going to the stairwell because they had been doing so every day for two weeks.

On the mid-floor landing, the girl told Zurawik, they had begun kissing, which she consented to, but then the boy had begun fondling her and ultimately forced her to perform a sex act upon him against her will.

The girl later gave the same story to a professional child social worker under police observation and said further that it wasn't the first time the boy had tried to have sex with her at school.

The girl said she had met the boy after they entered Longfellow and had begun a relationship. She said they had exchanged declarations of love and that they would "make out" in the stairwell, hugging and kissing.

However, she told the social worker, on one occaision he had pleaded with her to let him have sexual intercourse with her. She said she allowed him to try because she was afraid, but he failed.

On that occasion as well, she said, they were on the mid-floor landing of the stairwell, at mid-day of a school day just outside the cafeteria.

Likewise, she said, on March 14 they had begun kissing, but then the boy tried to fondle her and then force her into another act.

The Wauwatosa police forwarded it to juvenile authorities as a case of first-degree sexual assault of a child. The police reports did not include any interview of the boy, but detectives were continuing the investigation.

The available reports conclude that police met with Zurawik to set up a safety plan for the girl while she was in school, and that a final plan was to be put into place "once we learn if (the suspect) will be returning to Longfellow."

Wauwatosa Patch requested a statement from the Wauwatosa School District as to what had been done to secure or monitor the stairwell in question, and what the safety plans entailed.

District Human Resources Director Dan Chanen issued the following statement:

"The specifics of this incident cannot be discussed due to student confidentiality issues. The incident has been dealt with through the District's disciplinary process, which determined the appropriate consequences.

"Student safety and supervision is of utmost importance to the District. All of the schools in our District continually have safety reviews and upgrades to insure students are safe throughout the school day.

"Appropriate measures have been taken as a result of this incident."