After reports emerged that a school district failed to protect a victim of sexual assault, another student alleged the district did nothing to protect her from a stalker.
This is the final part of a three-article series on allegations from families who have attended Georgetown ISD. Texas Scorecard asked the district for comment on these stories. Their statement is printed in full at the end of this article.
In April 2022, multiple Georgetown ISD Benold Middle School students and their parents protested the school district and local law enforcement. The reason why? They said not enough was done to protect students or hold anyone accountable for a March 26 off-campus sexual assault of a student by other students. Specific to the district, parents and students were outraged that the district would keep the victim and alleged perpetrators in the same classroom.
On April 19, 2022, at a meeting of the Georgetown ISD school board, a 15-year-old girl told board members that the school district had failed to protect her, too, when she asked for help. “I am only in ninth grade, but I have already been a victim of stalking by a former dating partner,” she said.
Scary Days
That student is now 17 and a senior. While preparing for the next stage of her life, she doesn’t want Georgetown ISD to stay as it was during her time there.
Her name is Royanne Kelly. Her mother, Carol, gave permission for her daughter’s name to be published. Pseudonyms are used for all other students.
Royanne’s story began her first year at Georgetown High School in September 2021. She became friends with two junior boys. One of them, “Mark,” a pseudonym, she became close with. They kissed. Royanne Kelly said he wanted something casual. She wanted more, so she tried to end things. That’s when the trouble started. “He took pictures of my mom’s car driving around town. Took pictures of my house, and him and his friend [pseudonym “Channing”] would scream things at me, threaten me.”
Royanne Kelly was in the school theater, and one day Mark came to the dressing room backstage to wait for her. “He had no business to be in the dressing room,” Carol said. “[Royanne] was the only one there. The cast was doing something else, somewhere else.”
The threat extended from school to home. Royanne Kelly said she heard Channing threaten to set fire to it, and Carol said Mark would hide in their bushes.
Royanne Kelly felt unsafe everywhere. Carol emailed the school counselor. Nothing changed. Eventually, Carol Kelly was successful in getting a temporary “stayaway agreement” after approaching the School Resource Officer. The agreement didn’t last long. Royanne found herself again under siege from her stalker, with no help from the district.
But shouldn’t the SRO, a police officer, have done more to protect Royanne Kelly? Janelle Davis, an education attorney in North Texas said that generally, SROs are not reliable in protecting students.
“In most instances, they report to the district superintendent, who is obviously not a law enforcement official. I’ve seen situations where a parent has tried to file a report and has been actively discouraged from doing so by the school resource officer,” she said. “If a school resource officer does take a report and do an investigation, the parent is typically stonewalled when it comes to getting copies of the investigation report and all the materials that are used in the investigation.”
Texas Scorecard asked the City of Georgetown to whom school resource officers report. “All School Resource Officers are Georgetown Police Officers and work for the Georgetown Police Department,” replied Georgetown Police Department Chief of Police Cory Tchida.
Carol Kelly was frustrated because she found that GISD had a policy that stated students can be held accountable even if a serious event involving students occurs off campus. But in reality, things worked differently. “[The] counselors and the principal weren’t really that worried about it.”
Royanne Kelly spoke to Assistant Principal Gomez multiple times about Mark. “She said, ‘I think the only way to solve this situation is for you to transfer,’” Royanne Kelly recalled.
While mother and daughter found the school district negligent in their duties, some staff took it upon themselves to try and protect Royanne Kelly. The theater teacher had several football players, who were also in theater, escort her around school.
Attorney Janelle Davis advised that in situations like this, parents should go to their local police department. “Stalking, it’s a criminal matter,” she said. “Go straight to the police about it, and file a report, and start documenting it that way. Address it that way and force the school district to take some sort of action, because there [are] criminal proceedings.”
When it comes to cyberbullying, Davis said there’s a new law in Texas that allows parents to file civil suits. Through this mechanism, they can get a restraining order. “I’m helping a mom whose daughter was being harassed online, and the school wasn’t doing anything about it,” Davis said. “She went and filed her own civil suit under this statute to try to force the child to stop.”
Around February 2022, Carol and Royanne Kelly both went to the Georgetown Police and gave a statement about Mark. “I think we went on break from school, and once we came back… like I still got things yelled at me in the hallway and got dirty looks, but it wasn’t as outside of school as it was before,” Royanne Kelly said. “Eventually they just got bored of it.”
Then came the April 2022 school board meeting, when parents confronted the school board about the off-campus March 26 sexual assault. Why did Royanne Kelly join them? “The reason she spoke at the school board meeting is because [of] the things that had happened at Benold [Middle School],” Carol said. “[Royanne] still had friends at that school … They were afraid, because the kids that were accused … were still in class with these other kids … The school board wasn’t doing anything about it.”
Davis said the sad reality in Texas is that parents have few means to hold government school districts accountable. “They can certainly try to use their district’s grievance process. Every district is required by state law to have a grievance process where parents can file complaints,” she said.
However, she pointed out that in that process the district investigates itself and will often bring their attorneys in to help. “Then you have a parent up against the school district and its attorney, and usually [parents are] by themselves, trying to work through that.”
Davis added that the grievance process typically won’t provide monetary relief either, regardless if a child has injuries that result in medical bills for the parents. If an educator is involved, a parent could file a complaint against that educator’s certification. “It could provide accountability for somebody who failed to do what they were supposed to do if they’re investigated and found to be at fault or responsible for violating the law or violating the educator code of ethics in Texas, but it doesn’t help the victim become whole.”
Davis said the last option is filing in federal court, but she emphasized that is a “really, really tough road to go down.”
Government school districts in Texas, with few exceptions, enjoy immunity in state court. Only state lawmakers can change that.
The Kellys said the Georgetown ISD board’s lack of action led to the April 2022 protest, where they joined multiple students who staged a walkout.
Eventually, two minors suspected of being connected to the off-campus assault were arrested by the Georgetown police.
As time passed, Mark apologized to Royanne Kelly for stalking her. However, her concerns with Georgetown ISD remain. Her hope is that by sharing her story, others who have been harmed in the district will come forward. “Change may not happen just from my story,” she said. “It is a hostile learning environment.”
Texas Scorecard asked Georgetown ISD for comment for this series. Their statement is below.
The safety of our students and staff is our top priority. We appreciate you letting us know of your intentions and the opportunity to respond.
Georgetown ISD is committed to transparency and working toward a resolution with families for every concern. Hopefully, you can understand that we are limited in what we can share publicly since we’re prohibited by federal law from discussing the details, including facts of an investigation or disciplinary consequences of individual students.
We have no tolerance for the mistreatment of students and act as swiftly as possible to respond to such allegations. Every report is taken seriously and fully investigated. Unfortunately, federal law can slow down that process when the allegations relate to sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence, or stalking because those all fall under Title IX, which requires a long and protracted process, and FERPA prohibits the school district from releasing certain information.
Likewise, state law grants protections for school employees that can prevent the district from acting as swiftly as some would like. However, I can confirm that Ms. Cantu has not been on campus since campus administrators learned of the alleged incident.
We remain committed to being transparent and responsive while working with families according to the protective and legal guidelines that are in place.
The ones who hold the power in local school districts are its elected board of trustees. Georgetown ISD has seven trustees.
If you or anyone you know has information regarding Georgetown ISD, contact our tip line: scorecardtips@protonmail.com.
