A recent lawsuit filed against a volunteer aide at the Prince George's County Public Schools has sparked further controversy when claims about the school principal's knowledge of the suspect's behavior had already been reported in the past.
The volunteer aide is currently facing charges on child sex abuse and child pornography. Now, reports are coming in that the aide's actions was well known among students, teachers and parents. They claim that they had even reported these to the principal.
Deonte Carraway from Lanham was arrested on Friday for allegedly manufacturing child pornography materials, some of these were even created on the school property. Apart from this, he is facing a charge on sexual abuse of a minor as well as a second-degree sex offense. According to WTOP, Carraway's activities were made known to the public when the guardian of a 9-year-old student came forth to sue the aide, the school board of the Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary School, as well as its Principal Michelle Williams. The boy was said to be one of the victims of exploitation committed by Carraway.
Apart from the child, other county school children had also come forward to admit that they were also sexually abused by the aide. As many as 30 children have been identified as victims of Carraway, along with other students in the fourth grade class of the 9-year-old. Out of the 30, police have identified 11 victims.
According to the lawsuit filed against him, the 22-year-old had coerced and pressured the students to perform in sex acts with him. He had also persuaded the children to perform sexual acts with each other. The lawsuit says that these acts were performed during school day and on school property. Carraway had filmed these acts on his cellphone as he filmed around school property locations such as bathrooms and the auditorium. Police officers were able to obtain these videos which date back from the start of 2015 and continued until his arrest last week.
While the principal was informed by the teachers of Carraway's suspicious actions, she says that she could not act since no proof was presented to her. As reported on Fox 5 DC, Williams and other school officials should have reported their suspicions as required by the Maryland state law.
On Wednesday, school officials joined the FBI and local law enforcement at a news conference. They also announced a hotline they had set up where suspicious activity could be reported. A spokeswoman for the school board declined to comment on the lawsuit.
