A recent lawsuit against the Santa Rosa County School Board has exposed disturbing failures in student safety that led to a sexual assault at Gulf Breeze High School, raising serious questions about supervision and accountability in our schools. See Amended Complaint filed
- Levin Papantonio Attorney Rachel Gilmer, representing the victim’s family, appeared on “(We Don’t) Color On the Dog” to discuss the March 2024 incident that she describes as “every parent’s worst nightmare.” The case reveals a troubling pattern of inadequate supervision and selective rule enforcement that created what Gilmer calls “a recipe for disaster.”
A System of Failed Supervision
The assault occurred when female varsity basketball players were participating in an unsupervised sixth-period gym class. Despite previous parental concerns about lack of oversight, the school had assured families that “somebody would be regularly overseeing and basically monitoring this class.” That promise proved hollow.
On the day in question, students needed basketballs for practice, but the equipment was stored in the boys’ locker room. “The girls were told, when you have to go to the locker room to get basketballs, you knock on the door, you announce yourself,” Gilmer explained. The 15-year-old victim followed these instructions exactly, but encountered a male student who “actually followed her into the hallway, which is where the assault actually occurred.”
Red Flags Ignored
Perhaps most troubling is the pattern of behavior that preceded the assault. The perpetrator, also a varsity athlete, “had a known propensity to wander the school during class period” and “had been found in the gym multiple times when he wasn’t supposed to be,” according to Gilmer. Despite repeated school policy violations, meaningful disciplinary action never followed.
“He was given detention a couple of times and just didn’t show up to detention. No one suspended him. He didn’t miss his varsity sports games for any type of punishment,” Gilmer said. This lack of consequences created an environment where “this young man felt that he was allowed to do what he wanted. The rules didn’t apply to him.”
Institutional Betrayal
The school’s response after the assault compounded the trauma, according to the attorney. Rather than protecting the victim, administrators “immediately made to feel like she was the one who had done something wrong.” Shockingly, “the school didn’t even notify her parents initially” and obtained “a written statement from her before ever notifying the parents.”
- The victim’s mother only learned of the assault through a text from her daughter asking her to come to school. Meanwhile, the accused student “was never called out a class. He wasn’t questioned. He returned to school the next day.”
The school’s proposed solution was woefully inadequate: having both students “sign a piece of paper saying they would not have contact with each other.” The victim’s family “had no faith and confidence that the school was going to be able to ensure that this young man did not come in contact or worse with their child again.”
Broader Implications
This case highlights a critical issue in school safety: the danger of inconsistent policy enforcement. As Gilmer noted, “Gulf Breeze, all the schools in Santa Rosa County…have student codes of conduct, they have standards of care, policies and procedures. Those are all proper and in place. The problem is they’re not being followed, they’re not being enforced.”
- The lawsuit serves as a stark reminder that protecting our children requires more than written policies—it demands consistent enforcement and adequate supervision, regardless of a student’s athletic status or perceived value to the school.
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