SILVERDALE, Wash. — The Central Kitsap school district has suspended a boy and girl, both 14, for engaging in oral sex in the back seat of a school bus.
The Kitsap Sun says another 14-year-old was suspended for recording the act on her cell phone.
The Kitsap County sheriff’s office investigated and is turning the case over to prosecutors who are deciding whether to file charges.
The sheriff’s report says students from Klahowya Secondary School were on a field trip from Klahowya to Olympic High. A district official would not provide details of the May 17 trip.
Klahowya principal Ryan Stevens didn’t hear about it until a week later, when one of the girl’s parents contacted him, according to the report. Her parents had learned about it from other parents. It was reported June 3 to the sheriff’s office.
Stevens questioned the three students involved. They all admitted their parts in the incident, according to the sheriff’s report, and were suspended from school. The principal also met with three teens who said they witnessed the activity.
Central Kitsap School District won’t confirm the suspension because it doesn’t discuss student discipline, said spokesman David Beil. Law enforcement was called and the case is now in the hands of the prosecutors, he said.
“We take these matters very seriously and we’ll process it as we would any other matter of this nature,” Beil said. “Out of respect for student privacy, we can’t discuss the matter in detail. It’s between the family, the district and authorities.”
Patti Woolf, director of operations for the school district, didn’t know whether there were any adults on the bus other than the driver. She said the district doesn’t plan on implementing changes.
“As far as we know it’s an isolated incident, and we always try to be as vigilant as possible,” Woolf said.
On Thursday, deputies interviewed the girl who took the five-minute video. She said nobody asked her to do it and she deleted it without sending it to anybody.
Todd Dowell, a deputy prosecutor in the Juvenile Division of the Kitsap County prosecutor’s office says it could take two weeks for the report to work its way through the system.
There was another report of school bus sex in Kitsap County last spring when a 13-year-old boy was accused of inappropriately touching a 14-year-old girl on a bus carrying Kingston Middle School students in the North Kitsap School District.
Cynthia Morris, sexually transmitted disease education coordinator with the Washington State Department of Health, said more teens are engaging in oral sex.
“They believe as long as they’re not having vaginal intercourse, they’re still virgins,” she said.
And they don’t fear sexually transmitted diseases, though they can still get herpes and gonorrhea.
“With teenagers, especially the young ones, they don’t understand the risk and they think it’s harmless play,” Morris said. “The thing they worry most about is getting pregnant. You can’t get pregnant with oral sex, but you can get other things.”
Information from: Kitsap Sun, www.kitsapsun.com/
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