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| Director of Saudi Academy arrested for failing to report alleged child abuse | ||
| 2008-06-21 | ||
| The director of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) was arrested last week and charged with failing to report a child abuse allegation. Abdallah I. Al-Shabnan, director of ISA, was also charged with obstruction of justice, according to a police report on his June 9 arrest. He is now out on bail pending trial and is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 1. He could not be reached for comment. Police say Al-Shabnan’s arrest came after police alleged he covered up an incident in which a 5-year-old girl attending the school reported that she was being sexually abused by her father. According to court papers, Al Shabnan, 52, of McLean, Va., said he didn’t believe the girl and did not report the incident, instead telling the girl’s parents to seek counseling for her. Police said in court papers that Al-Shabnan ordered a written report about the girl’s complaint, which had been prepared by other school officials, to be deleted from a school computer. Virginia state law requires school officials to report allegations of abuse within 72 hours. “At no time did Mr. Al-Shabnan report the allegations to any child protective agency or law enforcement agency,” an affidavit for a search warrant filed in the Fairfax County Circuit Court says. “He further stated that he was not aware that he was required to make such a report.”
The misdemeanor counts come at a time when the private school is under heavy criticism from a federal commission and other groups over textbooks that allegedly teach violence and hate. ISA, a 900-student private school with campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax, Va., has been the subject of renewed scrutiny after an investigation by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said it found that textbooks used in the school contained offensive passages. More than a dozen protesters lined up outside the ISA this week. The protesters, including the conservative Traditional Values Coalition, want the Justice and State departments to investigate the school. The State Department last year obtained copies of the school’s textbooks but did not make their findings public. Staff and children affiliated with ISA brought bottles of water to the demonstrators, who gathered near a sidewalk in front of the school holding signs. Rahima Abdullah, the ISA’s education department director, denied the allegations. “That’s absolutely not true,” said Rahima. “What we teach here is love and tolerance.” The school issued a statement saying the textbooks had been mistranslated and misinterpreted.
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Sherry, I think I know what you are talking about. In a previous life, I did 'loss prevention' at a record store. I would pretend to be shopping, while watching for shop-lifters. I got good enough that I could 'mark' a shoplifter as they walked in the door. They looked wrong. They shopped wrong. They might as well wave a red flag as they stuck CDs in their jackets. But that was a previous life, as I said. |
| Posted by: Free Radical 2008-06-21 19:45 |
| #4 IÂ’ve been in this school. In a previous life, during my more youthful days, my job had me walking into thousands of schools in all but two of our states. It takes about five minutes to assess a school. I called it the "feelin' of the buildinÂ’." It was the feelin' that the principal created in the building. The demeanor of the faculty and the demeanor of the students reflected the demeanor of the principal. This was one creepy school. There were two of us visiting the school that day. We couldn't get out fast enough, and all but ran back to our car, each of hesitate to express the feelin' in case the other didn't get it. We both did.... The first "franchise" restaurant we recognized would have Scotch, we stopped! (It was the last appointment of the day.) I get the creeps just typing this.... |
| Posted by: Sherry 2008-06-21 18:57 |
| #3 Here in the West we start with a medical exam to see if sexual activity did occur. If yes, Mr. al Shabnan is well and truly screwed, because the charge is that he covered up the accusation. Assertation of the father as the guilty party is unnecessary for conviction... and the child could presumably be removed by the courts for her own protection, since her parents demonstrably did not keep her safe from egregious harm. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-06-21 10:34 |
| #2 Court documents also say Al-Shabnan “stated he did not believe the girl’s complaint and felt she may be attempting to gain attention.” after all, she is a 5 yr old brazen hussy. By next year, she'll be past marrying age, a washed up old hag |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-06-21 07:47 |
| #1 Can't wait to hear his sharia defense. Reminder: in the religion-of-peace, a female who reports sexual assault must be backed by 4 adult males. Solitary rape de jure, legal. Some Muslims skirt around the problem by torturing a confession out of the rapist. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-06-21 06:44 |