A Hamilton County Schools administrator who is accused of not taking proper precautions to protect a female student from a sexual assault allegedly took part in an email conversation where she worried about the effects of the situation on the alleged perpetrator.
The emails, gathered by the Times Free Press, show a conversation between Carmen Veller, assistant principal at the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, and Hamilton County Police Detective Jason Maucere. In the emails, Veller states that she is “especially concerned” about how the allegations would affect the accused student long-term.
Veller is one of the individuals named in a federal lawsuit that claims that Hamilton County Schools did not provide protection for the 13-year-old female victim, referred to as Jane Doe, after she was repeatedly harassed and eventually sexually assaulted by a 13-year-old male student, referred to as Jim Doe.
According to the allegations, the boy forced the girl to perform oral sex on him in the school’s boiler room. The incident allegedly took place on December 9, 2021, during an after-school choir concert. The lawsuit states that school administrators failed to notify the girl’s parents and did not take immediate action in reporting the incident.
