MEMPHIS, TN – Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons announced Monday that the D.A.’s office approved filing criminal charges against the principal and assistant principal of White Station High School for their alleged failure to report an assault against a student last month.

The Memphis Police Department charged principal David Mansfield and assistant principal Eric Harris with Violation of Duty to Report, a class A misdemeanor.  The defendants were issued misdemeanor citations and have been summoned to Juvenile Court on November 3 for arraignment. While the defendants are adults, Juvenile Court has jurisdiction over these matters.

The affidavits of complaint presented to the Juvenile Court Magistrate allege that on September 18, 2009, a 17-year-old female student “was the victim of a beating by multiple students on campus.”  The affidavit goes on to say a witness found the student “on the floor in the fetal position.”  The witness also stated the student had “multiple injuries that were bleeding,” and that she was “crying too hard” to verbalize what happened to her, according to the affidavit.  The Memphis Police Department says the school did not immediately report this incident to them.

Under Tennessee law, “any person who has knowledge of or is called upon to render aid to any child who is suffering from or has sustained any wound, injury… shall report such harm immediately if the harm is of such a nature as to reasonably indicate that it has been caused by brutality… Such report is to be made either to the juvenile court judge, the department of children’s services, or law enforcement.”

At the start of the current school year, at Dr. Kriner Cash’s request, District Attorney Gibbons videotaped a message to be shown to all Memphis City Schools administrators and principals outlining the state’s mandatory reporting law and the consequences for violating the law.  The message stresses the importance of school officials making an immediate report to law enforcement as soon as the injury is discovered.  Plans are being made to show the message to administrators at Shelby County Schools and private schools in Shelby County.

If convicted of Violation of Duty to Report, the maximum penalty is a fine of up to $2,500.

Assistant District Attorney Terre Fratesi, the chief prosecutor assigned to Juvenile Court, is handling this case.