Students wage protest at DVHS

There is a student-led movement underway at Delaware Valley High School to have a male student removed from the school due to repeated allegations of sexual harassment of female students, according to parents and students familiar with the situation.

Parents and students who commented on the record said the male student, who will not be named, had been removed from the school years earlier due to similar complaints and that upon returning to the school this year, they say, has continued to engage in inappropriate behavior.

A petition organized by Andria Prime, a junior at the high school, calls for the male student in question to be expelled from the school. As of Wednesday afternoon, the petition had garnered nearly 1,000 signatures.

The change.org petition, reads, in part: “[The accused male student] has been sexually harassing and touching girls ever since he got to DVHS. Recently, he was outed for trying to date a 14-year-old freshman. He is a senior and about to be 18. This behavior is unacceptable. In 2021, the school had a walkout because he was sexually touching girls without their consent, not to mention the many other allegations such as sexual assault, watching/showing people porn in class, begging younger girls for nudes, threatening the lives of girls, and God knows what else...”

The petition accuses the school of not doing enough to discipline the student, aside from suspending him for a few days. Prime said the petition will be sent to the principal, school board and superintendent, as well as the media.

On Monday, October 28 Shannon Findlay, a senior at the high school, organized a student walkout to bring attention to the issue. According to her mother Rachael, Findlay received “a three day out of school suspension while the district performs their investigation.”

Additionally, students allege that the male student in question, who is serving an out of school suspension for various infractions, made threatening remarks, via Snapchat, against the school last Friday.

While declining to comment on anything that may or may not have occurred in the past pertaining to individual students, Delaware Valley School District Superintendent Dr. Brian Blaum said the district follows guidelines as laid out in their handbook.

“Whenever there is an infraction that’s brought to the administration’s attention, the handbook is followed with regards to the consequences that the student receives,” he said. “For the information that the high school team dealt with, they acted appropriately with regards to our handbook.”

Regarding last week’s alleged threat to the school, Blaum said the following: “Safe to Say is a hotline in Pennsylvania that kids can call anonymously to leave information if they feel someone is in danger or someone is risking a catastrophe or threatening something,” Blaum said. “That information is disseminated to local or state law enforcement depending on the issue. So, on Thursday evening, there was a Safe to Say call received by the state police that was investigated by them that evening and it was determined that no credible threat had been made.”