Student arrested for sexual assault at Henry Ford II High School
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (FOX 2) - Students were back in class Tuesday at Henry Ford II High School in Sterling Heights, one day after an arrest was made for an alleged sexual assault.
According to police, the alleged assault happened at 1:30 in the afternoon during classes on Tuesday, Dec. 5.
"It’s typically a safe environment and an incident like this happens at the end of the day, it’s about acting quickly -that's what we did - and investigating it, and working on prosecution right now," said Lt. Mario Bastianelli, Sterling Heights police.
The investigation started, and ended, on Monday, December 11th.
"The family of the victim ended up reporting to us, the police department, that she was sexually assaulted while at school," he said. "We gathered a lot of evidence quickly and we went and arrested the suspect immediately,"
As soon as they received the complaint, the police got to work.
"This incident occurred outside the center for performing arts in a vestibule-type area," Bastianelli said. "And through our investigation, we were able to obtain evidence that confirmed it, and gave us probable cause to arrest the suspect,"
Police are not releasing any other specifics about what allegedly happened and who was involved due to the fact that both parties are juveniles.
The school district did send a letter home to parents of Henry Ford II high, informing them of the police investigation and indicating an investigation by the school district, as well.
In the letter, the district says it appears to be an isolated incident. Both the school and police know an allegation ths serious, is hard to navigate alone.
"There is a lot of help and counseling that is provided out there for people and victims so we can help connect them with that as well as the school does as well," Bastianelli said.
Police have handed over the investigation to the Macomb County prosecutor. His office is still waiting for additional information from a separate report in the coming days.
That office will decide to charge the suspect as a juvenile or adult.
