Cover-up

By Steve Woodward

After a male student, 11, was physically assaulted by a fellow male student of the same age on April 24, 2023, on the grounds of The O’Neal School, a private grade school in Southern Pines, school administrators responded rapidly and aggressively.

But their actions targeted the victim of the assault and his parents, and were marked by a pattern of denials intended to keep the incident out of the public eye and preserve the reputation of O’Neal.

Head schoolmaster John Elmore’s campaign to cover up the incident last April has divided a tight knit O’Neal community, alienated parents of students sympathetic to the plight of the assault victim, and resulted in the victim and two younger siblings being withdrawn as O’Neal students.

The male student who attacked his classmate eventually was criminally charged with “simple assault”. The case is being processed within the juvenile justice division of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. Meanwhile, the student remains enrolled at O’Neal and is attending classes during the current academic year.

The parents of the assault victim recently launched a web site chronicling the events of April 24, 2023, and detailing what has transpired in the aftermath. A companion Facebook page also is live. To date, the Facebook page has 160 followers.

The web site, The O’Neal School Watchdog, summarizes the family’s experience thusly:

“In a distressing incident at The O’Neal School, an 11-year-old child was brutally assaulted by another student near the gazebo on Konni’s Courtyard leading to severe injuries. The aftermath saw the Head of School threaten the victim’s family, warning them to maintain silence after a police investigation. The school’s response included disciplinary targeting of the victim and the eventual expulsion of the family for not agreeing to a gag order. The attacker continues to be a student attending classes at O’Neal.”

Your fearless RESOLVE author exclusively interviewed the father of the assault victim on February 6, 2024. Ironically, Rick Stefanik is a former member of the O’Neal School board of trustees. His spouse, Cassie, is a Class of 1996 O’Neal School graduate. (O’Neal is a pre-K through high school academy).

While it is not surprising that a prestigious private school would desire to minimize damage to its reputation after a physical assault incident, the willful contempt directed by O’Neal administrators toward the injured student and his parents in the ensuing months is exposing a culture of hubris worthy of a Netflix miniseries.

During our interview, Stefanik described a nightmare scenario that is ongoing.

“This has been an unbelievable situation for our whole family,” Stefanik said.

Watching his son’s long recovery from traumatic injuries was difficult enough. Confronting the school’s absolute indifference toward the incident, its toll on the student’s mental health, and emphasis on damage control by O’Neal’s top administrator has been surreal.

During a meeting with Elmore, O’Neal’s head of school, Stefanik found himself face to face not with an advocate but with an adversary. The well being of Stefanik’s son was not Elmore’s priority.

“This is what keeps me up at night,” Elmore told Stefanik. “This is the kind of thing that can destroy a school.”

Stefanik’s web site provides explicit detail as to the injuries inflicted on his son.

“The day after the assault, our child’s pain sent us to the (First Health) emergency room where doctors found blood in his urine and diagnosed him with injuries from physical assault. His condition included severely painful spasms occurring every couple of minutes eventually confining him to a recliner chair for over six weeks.

“Despite treatment, he developed a large baseball sized hematoma and had a deep muscle fascia tear.  This required specialized care from UNC and Duke including pain management injections in his abdomen and physical therapy.” 

After a six-week recovery, Stefanik’s son returned to the O’Neal campus and hoped to rejoin the swimming team.

“My soon spent six weeks refined to a recliner chair,” Stefanik said.

What happened next is described in detail on the web site. It is infuriating and Orwellian.

“When our son returned to The O’Neal School for swim team tryouts, John Elmore and (head of middle school) Miryah Walters’ presence was notably unusual.

“Their attention seemed more focused on him, without offering any reassurance of safety. In the days following, he felt uncomfortably monitored as adults followed him and limited his ability to interact with teachers and other students. On August 22 (2023), our son approached his science teacher in private about a concern that he would be placed into a group project with his assaulter.

“The teacher seemed unaware of the attack and escalated the issue to Miryah Walters. The next morning, he was taken to a room with Miryah and the Dean of Students, Kristen Blaire, where they harshly imposed a gag order on him. He was told that he was not allowed to discuss the details of his assault with anyone on campus including his teachers.  When he questioned the reasoning for this, the only answer provided was that he must follow the rules.”

By September, the headmaster determined that a victim of assault on his campus and the student’s parents posed too great a threat to the institution’s reputation. Why? Because they insisted on telling the truth about April 2023 and everything that transpired thereafter.

In correspondence from Elmore September 18, 2023, Stefanik is advised that his son “IS NOT ALLOWED ON THE O’NEAL CAMPUS AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON. ADDITIONALLY, HE IS NO LONGER ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE O’NEAL AQUATICS PROGRAM.”

Stefanik tells me O’Neal parents have contacted him to express their revulsion toward Elmore and the administration. But he’s not counting on a coordinated campaign to punish the O’Neal overlords.

“People are very hesitant to speak up,” he said.