• Skyline High School students say they’re done hearing stories whispered throughout the hallways of supposed sexual assaults and rapes against other students.
They’re done having their claims of sexual assault being allegedly ignored and suppressed by the school district and administrators. They’re done with attending a school they believe perpetuates rape culture.
They’re done.
Inspired by the recent lawsuit filed against the Issaquah School District on Oct. 25, Skyline students organized a demonstration in front of the school on the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 7.
As previously reported, a pair of former students are suing the Issaquah School District for not protecting them from bullying after they reported a sexual assault by two star football players. The district has denied any wrongdoing.
Now, current Skyline students are coming forward not only to support the former students but also to support other students who have been victims of sexual assault and victims of the school’s alleged mismanagement of sexual assault claims. — Issaquah Reporter
• The seven-member State Senate’s Facilities and Operation’s Committee has unanimously approved a special budget authorization that allows the Secretary of the Senate, Brad Hendrickson, to hire an independent investigator to look into an allegation of rape against state Sen. Joe Fain, R-Auburn.
Fain, a prominent state Republican, represents the 47th Legislative District, which encompasses the cities of Auburn, Kent and Renton. Fain has denied the allegation and called for an investigation into the claim.
“We are all aware of the serious allegation made against Sen. Fain,” began Senate Majority Leader Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, who made the motion. “This incident allegedly took place prior to Sen. Fain’s election to the Legislature, and is not covered under our normal policies for respectful workplace behavior, and does not clearly fall under any existing policy.
“As a result … we request that the (secretary of the Senate) hire an investigator, preferably with experience in the area of sexual assault, to review the allegations,” Nelson told the four Democrats and three Republicans that compose the committee, which met via conference call.
The as-yet-to-be-chosen investigator will report back to the Senate by Dec. 14, but by no later than Dec. 31.
In late September, Candace Faber, a former foreign service officer and an employee of Seattle’s Information Technology Department, said Fain had raped her in a Washington, D.C., hotel room in 2007, following a night of drinking that celebrated her graduation from Georgetown University. Faber first made the allegation in a tweet and later posted her story on Medium. Fain also lost his bid for re-election to the Senate in last week’s election, and it is unknown whether the investigation will still happen. — Auburn Reporter
• Bellevue police are asking locals for help in the cold case of a missing child who vanished more than seven years ago without a trace.
Sky Metalwala went missing when he was two years old on Nov. 6, 2011, and police have released a call for help, along with an age-progressed photo, on the anniversary of his disappearance for the past two years. Bellevue, Redmond and FBI investigators have pursued more than 2,500 tips, investing 14,000 hours and $2 million into the lengthy investigation. Sky’s 9th birthday was Sept. 2. — Bellevue Reporter
• Just moments after a jury found Marty Kime guilty of fatally shooting 1-year-old Malijah Grant, nearly a dozen officers had to forcibly restrain Kime and the baby’s father from going after each other Nov. 8 in an emotion-packed Kent courtroom.
Kime and Martrice Grant-Walker never got close to each other as King County Corrections and Kent Police officers swarmed the two men in the heavily guarded courtroom at the Maleng Regional Justice Center. Kime, found guilty of second-degree murder in the April 2015 drive-by, gang-retaliation shooting, struggled with officers as they removed him from the courtroom and into the hallway that leads back to the county jail.
Kime and Grant-Walker were members of rival Seattle gangs during the shooting in Kent. A bullet struck and killed Malijah Grant as she sat in her car seat in the back seat of a car driven by her mother Lisa Lynch with Grant-Walker riding in the front passenger seat. — Kent Reporter
• A former Federal Way High School basketball player who allegedly filmed two female students performing sex acts with another basketball player on two separate occasions in 2016 is facing two charges of voyeurism.
Federal Way detectives, who filed the case with the King County Prosecutors Office on Friday, said they are recommending these charges, according to Federal Way police commander Kurt Schwan.
Police reopened the 2016 voyeurism case as an active criminal investigation on Oct. 18 after police spoke with “cooperating witnesses,” Schwan previously told the Mirror.
One of the alleged victims, Tally Thomas, filed a tort claim against Federal Way Public Schools last month for $3.5 million. Thomas claimed she was videotaped against her will performing oral sex on an Eagles varsity basketball player that she was romantically involved with, according to the suit.
According to a police report, another similar incident involving another female student had also been filmed from a closet without her permission while she performed sex acts on a male student.
Thomas also alleged that the school’s head basketball coach, Jerome Collins, was aware of this incident, had watched the video in question and failed to report the situation to authorities, according to the Oct. 16 Federal Way police report.
The school district subsequently placed Collins on paid administrative leave. — Federal Way Mirror
