The students involved in a recent alleged sexual assault on the campus of Julius E. Sprauve School were not taking part in a supervised after-school activity, according to JESS principal Dionne Wells.
The incident was reported in the V.I. Police Department’s Leander Jurgen Command case log on Thursday, November 17, at 1:30 p.m. and classified as an attempted rape.
The incident, which involved several students, occurred on Tuesday, November 15, at the JESS Cruz Bay campus during an after-school activity, according to information from the Department of Education.
The students who were involved in the alleged sexual assault incident, however, were not participating in the after-school activity, Wells explained.
“Those kids were not in an after-school program,” said the principal. “After the bell rings, those students are supposed to leave campus.”
Wells was informed of the incident on November 17 and immediately contacted VIPD, DOE and Department of Human Services officials. She also met with officials and the parents of the accused at JESS on Friday, November 18.
“At this point, all of the appropriate agencies, including the V.I. Police Department and Human Services, have been properly notified about the event and are in the process of determining exactly what occurred,” according to a prepared statement by DOE.
DOE did not release additional information or the identity of the students for their own protection, according to DOE officials. JESS is a public elementary and middle school in Cruz Bay with kindergarten through eighth grade classes.
