A new lawsuit targets three school system employees and a school resource officer for failing to contact law enforcement about suspected child abuse in accordance with school policies.
The estate of Elwyn John Crocker Jr., one of two Effingham County siblings whose bodies were discovered buried behind their family home in December 2018, has filed a lawsuit against four school officials, alleging their failure to follow mandatory child abuse reporting procedures allowed the teenager’s abuse to continue and ultimately cost him his life.
The 17-page complaint filed last week in Effingham County Superior Court names the school counselor and the principal at the time, both employees at Effingham County High School, a Student Support Coordinator for the school district, and a school resource officer.
The lawsuit was filed by Brent Savage of Savage Turner Pinckney Savage Sprouse & Gilluly on behalf of Amanda M. Oliveira, the administrator of Elwyn Crocker Jr’s estate. Oliveira is also the administrator for the estate of Mary Frances Crocker.
The suit focuses on a March 2017 report of abuse by a student that school personnel received approximately 21 months before authorities discovered the bodies of Elwyn Jr. and his younger sister, Mary.
A Detailed Report of Abuse
According to the complaint made on March 16, 2017 when a student at Effingham County High School reported witnessing and hearing abuse involving Elwyn Jr. at the hands of his grandmother, Kim Wright.
The student reported hearing Elwyn Jr. screaming while Wright told him to be quiet. The student also described hearing a belt striking skin, hearing Wright ask other family members how many additional strikes Elwyn Jr. should receive before continuing the beating, and later seeing a red mark around Elwyn Jr’s neck – approximately one hour after the incident.
The student told the a school system employee that Elwyn Jr. was being punished for stealing food.
Elwyn Jr. was homeschooled at the time, but his sister Mary was reportedly still enrolled in classes at another school.
DFCS Notified, But Police Allegedly Never Contacted
The Effingham County School District had a written policy governing how employees were required to report suspected child abuse.
In the Student Welfare Child Abuse Report Policy, a verbal report to the school counselor or principal was to be followed by a written “Report to Investigating Authorities.” The policy specifically required that the form also be faxed to the local police or sheriff’s department where the suspected abuse occurred.
According to the suit, the faculty member who received the report from the student notified the school counselor. The counselor submitted information to DFCS at approximately 2:30 p.m. on March 16, 2017.
The counselor then emailed the report to the principal, the Student Support Coordinator, and the school resource officer.
The issue, the suit contends, relates to the failure by the four defendants to send the report to the Rincon Police Department or the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office. Forwarding the email sent by the counselor to DFCS did not constitute ‘notification to law enforcement’ because a specific and seperate form for suspected child abuse was required to be sent to a law enforcement agency, but was never done.
Further, the SRO was responsible for on-campus offenses involving students and did not investigate child abuse allegations.
Therefore, the notification to DFCS and the announcement of the notification to DFCS did not alone meet the terms of the district’s policy, the suit alleges.
DFCS Declined to Investigate Despite Past DFCS Cases Involving Elwyn Jr.
The suit also alleges that DFCS declined to investigate the allegations by failing to even assign the report for investigation. DFCS received the report from ECSS on March 16, 2017 and by 7:54 a.m. the following morning had closed the case.
This is notable because exhibits attached to the filing detail a previous DFCS case involving Elwyn Jr. that required parenting classes by Elwyn Sr. and his wife, Candace Crocker.
Allegations of Inadequate Training by School System
The lawsuit claims the high school principal and the Student Support Coordinator failed to ensure school personnel received required training on child abuse reporting procedures. Specifically, any personnel who interacted with students were required to receive training in identifying and reporting suspected abuse, along with annual updates.
The complaint by the Elwyn Jr estate alleges that employees were not adequately trained on the requirement to forward reports to local law enforcement. Appropriate training, it reads, would have resulted in the report being provided to police and potentially prompted an investigation into conditions inside the Crocker household.
Lawsuit Seeks Damages and Attorney’s Fees
The estate brings claims alleging violations of mandatory, ministerial duties under the district’s child abuse reporting policy and asks the court for a jury trial and for monetary damages to compensate for the predeath mental and physical pain experienced by Elwyn Jr.
The lawsuit does not specify a dollar amount.
Why is this suit being filed now?
The nuance follows arguments made before the Georgia Court of Appeals earlier this year in the civil case by the Estate of Mary Crocker against Effingham County Board of Education et al.
In that case, the attorney for the estate of Mary Crocker (also Brent Savage) noted that a contract existed between the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office and the school system, but that the sheriff’s office itself was never contacted about the reports of abuse.
“Once the counselor made the decision that this child had been abused, then what happens next is one, two, three, four. She has to fill out a report in the format that they have, which I’ve never seen at this point,” Savage said.
Judges: “The report wasn’t attached to the email that was reported to law enforcement?”
Savage: “No, I don’t have that.”
When asked by the Court of Appeals judges if the SRO was ‘affiliated’ with the sheriff’s office, Savage said it did not matter if the SRO was affiliated with the sheriff’s office, there was an obligation under the school system policy to complete the form and send it to Rincon PD or ECSO, depending on the location of the abuse.
The attorney for the school counselor, the same counselor named in the Elwyn Jr. case, said the SRO is a certified law enforcement officer for the whole county and, therefore, a report was made to law enforcement – even if not on the specific policy-mandated form.
The Court of Appeals judges asked what the SRO did with the information. “Did he do nothing? Did he go call the sheriff’s office?” The attorney did not specifically answer that question.
When the attorney for the school board made their arguments in defense, he put the blame on the school counselor. He said the principal, then-Assistant Superintendent Yancy Ford, and then-Superintendent Randy Shearouse had no duty to report because the report was made to the school counselor.
He called the claims that administrators had additional duties “absurd,” which prompted the question by one judge to ask “Yeah, but why is that absurd? It’s not that difficult in the scheme of things. If I’m the principal of a school and someone’s just said ‘there’s a grandmother who is beating this one student in a way that I think is pretty serious’ for the principal to then say, “You know what, the counselor has a duty to report but maybe I’m just going to go ahead and send this over too.” In the world of technology, that would take maybe a few minutes. To say it’s ‘absurd’ might not be the right word.”
The attorney argued the duty to report was discretionary, not ministerial.
The complaint represents allegations by the estate, not findings of liability against the defendants. Defendants have 30 days to respond to the complaint.
