After three hours of deliberation Tuesday night, the Kalispell School Board voted 8-3 to temporarily expel a Glacier High School freshman who is being charged with misdemeanor sexual assault after an incident on a school bus last month.
Just past 11 p.m., the board decided the 15-year-old will remain out of school for the remainder of the quarter but could be reinstated Oct. 31, the first day of the second quarter, following the completion of a behavioral program.
Kalispell police have charged the boy and one other Glacier High freshman after an alleged sexual assault took place on a bus ride home from a football game in Missoula on Sept. 12. The second boy was charged with accountability to sexual assault. Both criminal charges will be handled in Flathead County Youth Court.
The school board’s decision came after board members met separately with various parents and lawyers as well as officer Jason Parce, who conducted the police department’s investigation into the incident, in a closed session inside the Kalispell Middle School library. A crowd of almost 20 waited outside in the hallway before filing back in after the meeting was reopened.
After the board’s decision but before the meeting was adjourned, board member Anna Marie Bailey explained her vote against the temporary expulsion.
“I think (the freshman) should be back in school Monday,” she said. “He’s been out of school too long already.”
Others in the audience appeared visibly disappointed with the decision, but remained silent.
The Glacier freshman has been suspended from school for the last month. The second boy who was charged in the incident returned to school recently. Both boys, along with four others found to be involved in the incident by school administrators, were removed from the football team and were suspended for a period of time.