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School officials arrested for failure to report sexual contact between students

Posted at 6:39 PM, Mar 14, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-15 21:02:22-04

Two Roberts-Naylor K-8 School officials have been arrested because police say they did not report sexual contact between two students.

On Tuesday the Tucson Police Department says the school's vice principal, 45-year-old Bernadette Rosthenhausler and a school counselor, 60-year-old Linda Archuleta, were arrested. They are facing class 6 felony charges for failure to report a reportable offense.

The incident between the students happened on March 1, according to a release from TPD sent Tuesday. Officers say a boy student made sexual contact with a girl student when a teacher momentarily left a classroom at Roberts-Naylor K-8.

The teacher reported the incident to Rosthenhausler, and according to TPD, an internal investigation was initiated. Later in the evening a parent of one of the students involved called police because the incident had not been reported to authorities, said Sgt. Pete Dugan. 

Detectives learned that the incident had been reported to the vice principal and the counselor, but neither reported it to police as required by law.

Rosthenhausler and Archuleta were booked into the Pima County Jail, but as of Tuesday evening, they were no longer listed on the jail website.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call 88-CRIME.

The Tucson Unified School District has released the following statement about the incident: 

Tucson Unified School District continues its own investigation into recent allegations involving mandatory reporting of an incident between students at Roberts-Naylor K-8 School, while also fully cooperating with the Tucson Police investigation. Student safety is of the utmost importance and Tucson Unified School District is taking this matter seriously. Given the privacy rights of the students and staff involved we cannot comment further at this time.