Aberdeen Middle School Valentine's dance ends with police presence, sex assault allegations
ABERDEEN -- A dance at Aberdeen Middle School abruptly ended early Thursday after allegations surfaced that a student inappropriately touched other students at a Valentine's Day party.
Parents and students' families still struggled to understand what happened on Friday.
Aberdeen Police said they were called to the school around 4 p.m. to help a School Resource Officer with a "large, disorderly crowd" at the Valentine's Day dance.
That day, several female students reported being touched inappropriately by a 12-year-old boy who was their classmate.
Harford County Public Schools said that appropriate disciplinary action has been taken.
As word about the sexual assault spread, students got upset and contacted their parents, which effectively ended the dance early.
Pictures from those living around the school showed the aftermath of the dance debacle: cars and police cruisers clogged the streets, and lots of people were running around.
Kayla Green went to pick up her niece that day. She said she found the environment frightening.
"To pull up to a school to pick up a kid from a middle school dance, and you have at least 30 cops there -- I mean, with all the shootings and everything's that happened, you don't know what's going on," she said.
Green's niece told her what happened at the dance. But she said what concerned her the most was that she didn't hear anything immediately from the school or school district.
"You have three or four assistant principals, you have a principal, you have multiple administration staff that could have set up a mass email, text, phone call," Green said.
Hours before school ended Friday, many parents were already picking up students. In a statement, Harford County Public Schools said students were congregating and disrupting the day, which caused a modified lockdown.
Many students ended up asking their parents to pick them up. Martin Fosso got one of those calls. He, too, still wants answers on all of this.
"I just want some concrete information," he said.
When he tried to get answers, Fosso said school staff were tight-lipped. He's just disappointed something like this happened on campus.
"It was a school dance, it should've been a happy occasion," Fosso said. "My daughter's first boyfriend was there and then it turned into this."
Fosso said his daughter will be OK. But, for Green's niece, it may be a while.
"She is extremely traumatized. She does not feel safe," Green said. "I have two other nephews and a niece that are in elementary school, supposed to go to this middle school next year. We're not about it anymore. We're gonna do virtual learning. We'll do homeschool, and that's what's gonna happen."
Criminal charges will not be filed, according to Aberdeen Police, due to state law preventing suspects under the age of 13 from being charged.