The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current, November 20, 2018, Image 6

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The times., November 20, 2018, Image 6

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Newspaper Page TextI2J OUR REGION Shannon Casas | Editor in Chief 770-718-3417 | news@gainesvilletimes.com The Times, Gainesville, Georgia Tuesday, November 20, 2018 Man accused of touching child Police: 7-year-old told adults following school program; cops credit initiative for uptick in reports BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Gainesville man is accused of inappropriately touching a 7-year-old girl, police said. Sgt. Kevin Holbrook said the information came following a school program for students. “What happens is the school system goes in and does their ‘Good Touch, Bad Touch’ (pro gram), and then this was one of those that came out of that program,” Holbrook said. Holbrook said the girl then revealed information to an adult about multiple incidents. “Through the course of the investigation, it was revealed that (Curtis Eugene Akins) had been inappropriately touching her,” Holbrook said. Akins was booked Friday, Nov. 16, in to the Hall County Jail on a charge of child molestation. No information was avail able from Magistrate Court on Akins retaining an attorney. “We’ll typically see an increase, sadly, of these cases as a result of that program,” Holbrook said. Akins SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Ralph Cavedo, an engineering inspector with the Hall County Department of Public Works, makes his way through the woods Monday, Nov. 19, at Reunion Country Club to where a sewage pipe began leaking three days earlier after a Sherwood Creek bank collapsed. SEWAGE ■ Continued from 1A afternoon. Cavedo said sewage is being diverted to city of Gainesville systems. Rearden said signs have been posted advising against swimming in the creek, but drinking water has not been affected. The creek flows into the Oconee River and is not con nected to Lake Lanier. The Georgia Environmental Pro tection Division was notified of the spill on Saturday, Rearden said. The county will then hand over its test ing data from the area to the EPD, Rearden said. According to EPD regulations, any discharge of sewage that exceeds 10,000 gallons is classified as a “major spill.” Officials are now cleaning up debris and reviewing water sam ples from the creek. Lime is being applied, but flows in the creek are still high, Rearden said. He said repairs and cleanup are estimated to cost at least $10,000. The county has been in commu nication with maintenance staff at Reunion’s golf course, Rearden said. Rearden said earlier this year, a contractor broke a force main, but all sewage was contained in an on-site pond, then pumped out and treated. Dale Caldwell, headwaters direc tor with Chattahoochee River- keeper, said sewage spills can pose risks to both people and wildlife. “There’s definitely human health concerns. You can contract bacte ria, viruses and parasites, but also there’s an environmental health component,” Caldwell said. Sewage in a waterway can lower the dissolved oxygen levels, which is harmful to aquatic life, Caldwell said. Also, too many nutrients can flood the water system, creating harmful algal blooms that can nega tively affect wildlife, he said. Lawsuit: Student suspended after reporting assault BY KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA — School officials didn’t believe a Georgia high school student and illegally retaliated against her after she reported that she was sexually assaulted by another student, according to a civil rights lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Atlanta on behalf of the teen, who is identified only as “Jane Doe.” It accuses Gwinnett County Public Schools officials of violating her rights under Title IX, a 1972 law that bars discrimination based on sex in schools that receive federal money. The school district hadn’t received the lawsuit Monday and couldn’t comment, spokeswoman Sloan Roach said in an email. The alleged attacker, who was a minor at the time, is not identified in the lawsuit. Adele Kimmel, a lawyer with legal advocacy group Public Justice, which is representing Doe, said a complaint filed in August 2015 with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has been investigated but remains unresolved. “We did not have confidence that this would get resolved in a way that would hold the school district accountable given the changes in policy in this administration,” Kimmel said, explaining why they filed suit. They had alleged systemic problems in the way Gwinnett County school officials handle sexual assault and harassment reports from students, but the Education Department now focuses on individual incidents rather than investigating the possibility of systemic problems, Kimmel said. While the lawsuit asks for monetary damages, it also seeks policy and training changes, Kimmel said. “What’s most important to her is that she does not want this to happen to any other student,” Kimmel said of the now-19- year-old Doe. Shortly after classes ended for the day at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee on Feb. 4,2015, the 16-year-old sopho more was waiting for her mother to pick her up when a male student asked if she wanted to go see the school’s television network’s room. Once there, the male student groped Doe and started to pull down her pants, the lawsuit says. She pushed him away and said, “No, stop!” and “What are you doing?” He pushed her into a chair, forcibly kissed her and forced her to perform oral sex, the lawsuit says. When he eventually released her, she fled and went to meet her mother. The male student sent a text message to a friend saying he felt “guilty” about doing something he shouldn’t have done, the lawsuit says. Doe told two teachers she trusted at the start of classes the next day, and one of them took her to meet with the school resource officer. The officer and three assistant principals questioned her, asking her to repeat the details of the alleged assault multiple times and having her re-enact it, the lawsuit says. The officer asked what she was wearing, whether she screamed, why she didn’t bite the male student’s penis and whether she was sure she hadn’t wanted to have oral sex, the lawsuit says. Doe was initially suspended pending a disciplinary hearing, after which she was suspended again. During the joint disciplinary hearing for the two students, attorneys for the male student and for the school grilled her, the lawsuit says. The school’s attorney said he didn’t believe Doe and that the male student’s claim that the encounter was consensual was more credible because Doe hadn’t screamed louder, had no physical injuries and didn’t tell her mother immediately afterward, the lawsuit says. School officials determined both students had violated the sexual misconduct policy. When she returned from suspension, Doe dreaded running into her alleged attacker and was bullied by other students, the lawsuit says. She eventually withdrew from the school before the end of her sophomore year, and her family left Gwinnett County “to escape unbearable hostility and retaliation in the community.” The lawsuit says school officials retaliated against the girl, failed to properly investigate and failed to correct a hostile educational environment. It also says the school district failed to properly train employees and implement policies to deal with sexual assaults. Public Justice has gotten other calls about mishandling of sexual assault and harassment cases in Gwinnett and is looking into those, Kimmel said. 0AKW00D ■ Continued from 1A another example of “rapid, rampant development” that’s turning the area into “another Gwinnett County.” A couple of residents also voiced opposition to the 12-acre McEver develop ment, saying they were con cerned about the housing density. Mayor Lamar Scroggs said at that meeting that the property has had its cur rent commercial zoning for about 15-20 years and “there haven’t been any buyers for the property.” He went on to say that Oakwood’s lack of residen tial growth over the past few years might hurt the city financially when Hall County and its cities begin later this year looking at renewing the special pur pose local option sales tax. Gov.-elect Kemp unveils his transition team ATLANTA — Georgia gover nor-elect Brian Kemp has unveiled a transition team that includes for mer U.S. Health and Human Ser vices Secretary Tom Price to begin building out his administration. The incoming Republican made the announcement just three days after his opponent in the hotly contested race, Democrat Stacey Abrams, conceded there weren’t enough votes for her to force a runoff. Kemp’s win was certi fied by Georgia elections officials Saturday. Kemp revealed the team of GOP politicians and activists Monday in Atlanta. He said his administra tion would be seen as “incredibly competent, obviously diverse and clearly committed to doing the right thing.” Price resigned his Cabinet post early in President Donald Trump’s administration amid outcry over his use of costly private charters for official travel.