By ALAINE GRIFFIN, agriffin@courant.com The Hartford Courant
10:41 p.m. EDT, March 20, 2013
TORRINGTON ——
With local and national TV news cameras rolling and journalists’ microphones in front of her, Torrington Schools Superintendent Cheryl F. Kloczko smiled as she broke some news.
For the 13th year in a row, Torrington’s music education program had just received national recognition.
“We’d like to share some good news once in a while,” Kloczko said.
It was all Kloczko managed to say at the afternoon press conference Wednesday where she was joined by police to talk about decidedly bad news: Her school system and the city at large were dealing with a crisis that played out on the national radar as an echo of the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case.
Three male students, including two football players, had been charged with sexually assaulting two 13-year-old girls — charges that drew social media posts critical of the alleged victims.
Kloczko, 61, was visibly upset earlier in the day after police briefed her on details of their investigation into the alleged assaults.
“Oh, I’m so angry,” she said in an interview in her office. “It’s all about respect and how you treat one another.”
The third arrest in two weeks was announced only Wednesday when police said that an unidentified 17-year-old male Torrington High School student had been charged with sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor — and that there could be more arrests.
All three arrests so far involved the same two underage girls, both from Torrington, police Lt. Michael Emanuel said at the press conference outside Torrington High School.
“It’s very complex, but [the case is] under control,” Emanuel said. “I’m not minimizing this,” he said, but he stressed that the 13-year-olds knew the older teenagers. The reason the incidents are being investigated as sexual assaults is because the girls are so young and the age difference is more than three years.
“It was consensual in the sense that it was not an attack but not consensual in the eyes of the law,” Emanuel said.
Two Torrington High School students, both 18, were arrested in late February and charged with sexual assault, each with a different 13-year-old girl. Police said both assaults occurred Feb. 10, a Sunday, and were reported to police by family members the next day.
The third arrest came March 4, stemming from an incident last fall, Emanuel said. The 17-year-old suspect is considered a minor and his case was referred to juvenile court. No details of that case were released.
Emanuel said there are “possibly” more arrests coming. When asked about allegations of taunting of the victims on social media, Emanuel said posts on Twitter and in other places on the Internet have “not come to our attention.”
The press conference was held jointly by police and school officials, who were flooded with questions after The Register Citizen newspaper in Torrington reported on the first two arrests and other incidents Wednesday under a headline across the top of Page 1: “Bullying, hazing and rape at THS.”
The paper published tweets, after the first two arrests, that targeted the 13-year-old girls. Among them: “I wanna know why there’s no punishment for young hoes,” “Even if it was all his fault, what was a 13 year old girl doing hanging around with 18 year old guys …” and “I’m sorry but none of this would be happening if young girls respected themselves nowadays.”
School officials Wednesday tried to assure the community that they are taking “all possible steps” to safeguard students’ safety.
Kenneth P. Traub, chairman of the board of education, made brief remarks at the press conference but cited confidentiality laws in refusing to answer questions from reporters. He said the Torrington schools “will continue to support and assist law enforcement officials in their investigation.”
He added, “We want to assure our school community that we are very concerned about the safety and well-being of all of our students and that all possible steps are being taken to keep our students safe in school.”
Kloczko said in the earlier interview that the three male students had been suspended from school in connection with the alleged sexual assaults. Results of an investigation by the school, with assistance from state child welfare officials, could determine whether the teens would ultimately by expelled, she said.