RIALTO, Calif. — Two assistant principals at a Southern California high school were charged Wednesday with child abuse for allegedly failing to report sexual abuse of three teenagers on campus, authorities announced.
David Shenhan Yang, 38, and Natasha Harris, 37, were arrested Wednesday. It wasn't immediately clear whether they had attorneys to speak on their behalf.
The two work at Wilmer Amina Carter High School in Rialto, east of Los Angeles. They were charged after a police investigation determined this month that a 17-year-old boy had sexually assaulted a girl on campus over the course of three months, police and the San Bernardino County district attorney's office said.
The girl, who was at 15 at the time, reported an assault last November but nothing was done, prosecutors and her parents said.
An assistant principal told the girl that “maybe it was the way you're dressed," her father, Bryan Tecun, told KNBC-TV.
“For that reason, she kept quiet, because she was scared that she was going to get expelled from school," said her mother, Stephanie Olvera.
Police said their investigation determined that two other girls, ages 15 and 16, also were allegedly assaulted. One came forward this month, and one had notified an assistant principal of an alleged sexual assault in September, authorities said.
Harris and Yang are considered “mandated reporters" who under California law must report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect to law enforcement, the district attorney's office said.
“In this case, the assistant principals’ failure to report sexual assault on their campus erodes the trust that students and parents alike should have regarding the safety and protection of all the children in their care,” District Attorney Jason Anderson said in a statement. “Their failure as mandated reporters to notify law enforcement lead to further victimization of two students, and the sexual assault of a third victim, which was preventable.”
Harris and Yang were each charged with felony child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death, and two misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse or neglect.
The 17-year-old student was cited by authorities and released into his parents' custody while charges of sexual battery are pending, authorities said. His name wasn't released because he is a minor.
