MEMPHIS, TN – Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons announced Tuesday that the D.A.’s office approved filing a criminal charge against the assistant principal of Wooddale Middle School for his alleged failure to report attempted sexual abuse against a student earlier this school year.

The Memphis Police Department charged assistant principal Willie Lee Tobias with Violation of Duty to Report Child Sex Abuse, a class A misdemeanor.  The defendant was issued a misdemeanor citation and has been summoned to Juvenile Court on December 1 for arraignment.  While the defendant is an adult, Juvenile Court has jurisdiction over these matters.

The affidavit of complaint presented to the Juvenile Court Magistrate alleges that on September 23, 2009, a 13-year-old female student reported to Tobias that a boy asked her to perform oral sex and when she refused, she was attacked by that suspect and another male student.  The affidavit goes on to say that the victim was “struck about the face and body with kicks and closed fists by the two suspects.”  According to the affidavit, two witnesses were present when the victim informed Tobias of the incident, yet he failed to report the incident.

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.”  The law continues to read that if any “person knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that a child has been sexually abused, the person shall report such information… relative to the sexual abuse of children, regardless of whether such person knows or believes that the child has sustained any apparent injury as a result of such abuse.”

This is the second case of failure to report filed against school administrators in Shelby County this school year.  Last month, the principal and assistant principal of White Station High School were charged with failure to report an alleged assault against a student.  A report date has been set for January 5, 2010 in that case.

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.  The video has also been distributed to the Shelby County Schools and the Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Memphis.  The video is available to independent schools in Shelby County upon request.

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