MEMPHIS, TN – Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons announced Friday that the state Grand Jury for Shelby County had returned criminal indictments against the principal and the former assistant principal of White Station High School for allegedly not reporting an assault against a student last school year.

The Grand Jury indicted principal David Mansfield and former assistant principal Eric Harris, now principal at East High School, with Violation of Duty to Report, a class A misdemeanor.  The defendants were issued misdemeanor citations last October and were originally summoned to Juvenile Court, which has primary jurisdiction over these matters.  The defendants asked that their cases be presented to the Grand Jury.

The affidavits of complaint filed against the defendants 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 states a witness found the student “on the floor in the fetal position” and she had “multiple injuries that were bleeding.”  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.”

Arraignment dates have not been scheduled.  If convicted of Violation of Duty to Report, the maximum penalty is a fine of up to $2,500.  The defendants are eligible for diversion.