Three current employees and one former employee of the Summit County School District have been indicted by a grand jury for failing to report child abuse. The four are accused of waiting a month before notifying law enforcement of a student's complaint about a teacher's inappropriate touching. By the time police were called, six other students had come forward with similar stories.
All four - Summit Middle School Principal Greg Guevara and Counselor Maureen Flannagan, and Summit County School District Human Resources Specialist Amanda Southern and former H.R. Director Dr. Grant Schmidt - face a single misdemeanor count of Failure to Report Child Abuse or Neglect.
The one-month delay violates Colorado state statutes on mandatory reporting. The law requires immediate reporting of such incidents. However, current state law does not define what length of time constitutes "immediate," and efforts are underway to review the mandatory process and improve the uniformity of training.
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