A vice principal and counselor at Roberts-Naylor K-8 School were arrested Tuesday, accused of failing to report a student's sexual offense, police said.
Vice Principal Bernadette Rosthenhausler, 45, and counselor Linda Archuleta, 60, were booked into the Pima County jail on suspicion of failure to report a reportable offense, a felony, according to a Tucson Police Department Facebook post.
Roberts-Naylor K-8 School is within the Tucson Unified School District. Β Β
On March 1, officers received a report from a parent about a possible inappropriate sexual contact between a boy and girl at the school, 1701 S. Columbus Boulevard, police said.
When officers arrived at the school, they learned the incident took place in a classroom when the teacher left the classroom "for a moment".
During that time, a boy "made sexual contact" with a girl, said police. The student reported the incident to the teacher, and the teacher immediately reported it to Rosthenhausler, who began an internal investigation, police said.
Child-sexual-assault detectives learned that the incident was reported both to Rosthenhausler and Archuleta, but never was reported to police or the state Department of Child Safety as required by law.
TUSD is conducting "its own investigation into recent allegations involving mandatory reporting of an incident between students" at the school, said Stefanie Boe, a district spokeswoman.
Boe said the district is "fully cooperating" with the police investigation.
"Student safety is of the utmost importance and Tucson Unified School District is taking this matter seriously," Boe said. "Given the privacy rights of the students and staff involved we cannot comment further at this time." Β
Detectives said their investigation is continuing and police ask anyone with information to call 88-CRIME.
