Two assistant principals at Rialto’s Wilmer Amina Carter High School threatened to expel a student unless she dropped a complaint that she was verbally abused and sexually assaulted by another student, according to a legal claim filed Thursday, March 3, by the girl’s attorney.
The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit against the Rialto Unified School District, alleges the girl reported to Assistant Principal David Shenhan Yang in November that she had been “physically and verbally sexually assaulted and attacked” by a 17-year-old male student at the school the day before.
Yang told the girl to wait outside his office so he could discuss the matter with Assistant Principal Natasha Harris-Dawson, according to the claim. The two then began pressuring the girl to drop her complaint, in part suggesting she was to blame.
During a meeting in Yang’s office, with a security guard present, the girl was informed her alleged attacker was being harassed, called a pervert, and physically threatened by other students. The girl told them she didn’t know the students who were harassing the boy, nor did she have any control over them.
“Mr. Yang and the school’s security guard told claimant she needed to ‘drop the beef,’ and if she didn’t, she could and/or would be suspended or expelled,” according to the claim.
Harris-Dawson subsequently called the girl into her office and asked her if she had said “no” to her alleged assailant, and, if so, whether she said it loud enough, and asked how many times she had said it. Harris-Dawson then suggested “maybe it was the way (the girl) was dressed,” according to the claim.
The girl’s complaint languished.
Mother finally informed
Three months later, the alleged victim told a teacher at the school what happened, and he told her to make another complaint with Assistant Principal Johanna Cuellar, who subsequently contacted the girl’s mother, Stephanie Olvera, at work, telling her “something had happened to her daughter regarding a boy,” that the “incident was under investigation,” and that she had “nothing to worry about,” according to the claim.
On Feb. 16, Olvera reported the suspected abuse to Rialto police, who began investigating. A week later, on Feb. 23, police arrested Yang, 39, and Harris-Dawson, 37, at the school. They were booked into the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, and released from custody the following day on their own recognizance.
Harris and Yang are each charged with one felony count of child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death and two misdemeanor counts of failure of a mandated reporter to report child abuse or neglect. They are scheduled for arraignment in April in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court.
Other victims
When detectives looked into the allegations, they learned that two other girls, ages 15 and 16, also had alleged they were sexually assaulted by the same suspect, and the two administrators also had allegedly failed to report one of those alleged victims’ complaints when it was lodged with the school in September, police said.
Police cited the accused 17-year-old boy for misdemeanor sexual battery and released him to the custody of his parents. The San Bernardino County Probation Department is reviewing the case, and District Attorney Jason Anderson said he expects to receive a recommendation from probation officials within a month.
“Rialto Unified School District takes the allegations in the claim for damages seriously, and does not condone any act of sexual misconduct against any members of our community,” school district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri said in a statement Thursday.
The district sent out a notification to parents last week informing them of the situation, saying it was cooperating with law enforcement in the criminal investigation and was conducting an investigation of its own into what happened.
Confrontation posted on TikTok
After learning what happened with her daughter, Olvera confronted Cuellar face to face at the school, recording the encounter on video and posting it on TikTok.
@penelope_73
“You told me I had nothing to worry about,” Olvera tells Cuellar. “How dare you tell me I had nothing to worry about? How dare you not call the cops yesterday?”
Cuellar told Olvera she would call police, to which Olvera replied, “Oh, now you will!”
Assistant principal denies wrongdoing
Harris-Dawson has denied any wrongdoing. Yang could not be reached for comment.
“My client is being accused of something she did not do. She was never told, by any student, including our purported victim, that someone was touching that person in a sexual way,” said Harris-Dawson’s attorney, Michael Scafiddi.
Scafiddi said police rushed to judgment in a lightning-quick investigation, without corroborating any of the alleged victim’s statements with other witnesses. He said his client only became aware of the allegations after police received a complaint and began investigating on Feb. 16.
“My client was never notified by any child at that school that they were being touched in a sexual manner,” Scafiddi said.
He said Harris-Dawson was an exemplary administrator at Carter High School, where she has been employed since 2017. She previously taught middle school and high school for the Moreno Valley Unified School District from 2007 to 2015, and prior to that taught at the K-12 level in Washington state.
At Carter High School, Scafiddi said, “My client is affectionately known as Mama Harris, Mama, or simply Harris. She is beloved.”
He said Harris-Dawson has a history of consistently calling police and county child protective services when student complaints warrant it.
Police, DA criticized
Scafiddi was unsparing of his criticism toward Rialto police, who he said forced his client to do a “perp walk” when she was arrested at the school. He said police investigators rushed to judgment, and that the District Attorney’s Office essentially took police at their word.
“Jason Anderson is a wonderfully gifted attorney. He’s a wonderful D.A.. His office is one of the fairest D.A.’s Offices I’ve ever dealt with. But Jason is basing his information on the Rialto PD investigation, which is incomplete and inaccurate,” Scafiddi said. “Police haven’t challenged any of these conflicting stories. They haven’t investigated the prior history of these kids. There’s no information in the police reports that they’ve done any follow-up investigation to challenge the assertion of the accuser.”
Anderson said his office charged Yang and Harris-Dawson based on strong evidence, believing the charges can be proven to a jury “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Scafiddi believes Harris-Dawson will be vindicated when the facts of the case are presented in court.
“We believe that my client will be fully exonerated,” he said. “My client will never plead to anything in this case, because she didn’t do anything. The cops got it wrong.”
In response, Rialto Police Chief Mark Kling said in a statement, “The Rialto Police Department will not comment on an ongoing sexual battery investigation involving children. Our department will continue protecting children and will not revictimize a child who reports sexual battery by commenting publicly.
“It’s disappointing that an officer of the court, mainly defense counsel, would assert their position in the court of public opinion, instead of reserving any comments for the appropriate venue. That venue is Superior Court in the County of San Bernardino.”
