Littleton High School student charged with allegedly groping four girls on campus, parent 'shocked' student allowed to return after five-day suspension
A Littleton High School student allegedly sexually assaulted four teen girls on campus in January. Despite police saying he admitted it and was caught on camera, as well as facing five unwanted sexual contact charges for the incidents, CBS4 Investigates has learned the alleged perpetrator was only given a five-day suspension, and was allowed to go back to the same school the victims attend.
One of the victims, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, says the whole ordeal has been traumatizing. She feels her school administration failed to take it seriously.
"I felt like the punishment really did not match the crime," the victim, a 15-year-old sophomore at Littleton High School, told CBS4 Investigates.
She says the last four months of school this school year were the hardest of her life, after she says she was groped out of the blue in January by an older student she didn't know.
"I was walking out of the library, when this random guy I had never seen before, cornered me in the hallway and then very aggressively grabbed my boob, and I stood there and I was looking up at him and he just kind of cackled in my face and then ran off the other way," the student recalled. "I was very horrified and surprised. At school, I've always felt this sense of safety. Like there's so much security, but it just had never occurred to me that this could happen, and in such a very public hallway like a very busy place. It just seems so strange."
According to a Littleton Police report obtained by CBS4 Investigates, the same boy allegedly groped three other girls on campus within the same week. One of the girls he allegedly grabbed two different times, totaling five different incidents.
The police report says the student suspect admitted it, telling police, "he wanted to know what her breasts felt like, so he grabbed it."
According to the report, when police asked how he grabbed it, he said "pretty hard."
The police report also says he groped another girl, because "he wanted to see what her butt felt like, so he grabbed it."
Police also wrote, "he didn't know why he did it other than it felt good."
Asked about a third victim, the report shows he told police, "he wanted to know what a woman's breasts felt like and he didn't know how else to feel a woman's breast, so he grabbed her."
Police say some of the incidents were caught on school surveillance cameras.
He was charged with five counts of "sexual contact-no consent"– a misdemeanor.
One of the victims' mothers tells CBS4 Investigates the school gave the boy a five-day suspension, and that when he came back to school, he would be supervised.
"I was just like there's no way someone could do this five times to four girls that he would ever come back. I was just sure we have an alternative high school, there's online school, there's homeschool, something like that. They will make him find another alternative option for school. I did not think he would come back," the mother said. "I was really shocked, and I did express my concern to the school employees… I said, 'I'm concerned about this happening again to my daughter, I'm really concerned this will happen to other people.' I understand he supervised, but it could just take a day where someone's out or they're not with him for a minute... He'll be a senior, he'll have a whole other year, with access to hundreds of girls. It's a real concern."
The mother, who also didn't want to be identified, says the school told her even a restraining order wouldn't stop the student from coming to school, that the school would just arrange his schedule so he wouldn't come in contact with the victims.
"I was expecting maybe he'd be expelled," the mother told CBS4 Investigates. "I was really surprised that it would come out to just one day per count of each of the sexual assaults. So, him touching my daughter was just one day off of school and the same for all the other girls. I couldn't believe it was five days and he's back. It's more like a slap on the wrist."
Littleton Public Schools' policies say sexual harassment "will not be tolerated" and the school district has the authority to expel a student charged with sexual violence, but it's ultimately up to the discretion of school administrators to determine the severity of the punishment.
The mom who spoke to CBS4 wants to see more systemic policy change.
"I feel like maybe we need to have a better policy," she said. "I feel like how many girls is too many girls? I mean, he has assaulted four girls a total of five times. I don't understand how he can come back. You know, once is too many, but definitely five times he cannot be in the school."
Littleton Public Schools declined an interview, but says it acts "swiftly and appropriately" to student behavior concerns. The district also says it has mental health experts available to students.
But the victim says she didn't feel safe with the school's response to this incident.
"I think that they should have more of a system in place, more rules," she said. "I felt like they weren't really fully prepared for this to happen, and I feel like they should have more of a punishment put in place, if that ever was to happen again."
She won't be returning this August, going to a different school instead, but she worries for all of the other girls at Littleton High School who may come into contact with the boy she says changed her life forever.
"I feel a little better that I won't be in the same building as him, just kind of like a fresh start, but I still don't think that I will feel like completely comfortable at school again," she said.
The district attorney says a pre-trial conference hearing in the case is set for July 21 in juvenile court.
State data shows this was the first reported sexual violence crime in Littleton Public Schools in at least three years.
According to the State Department of Education, reported student code of conduct violations are down significantly in public schools across the state. There were 117,500 in 2019, and only 30,597 in 2021.
But reported sexual violence incidents in schools statewide are starting to make up a greater percentage of those crimes. Only 0.04% of student issues were sexual violence in 2019. In 2021, it went up to 0.12%.
