Two Iowa County teenagers are facing charges for stalking and underage sexual activity after being accused of repeatedly grabbing a younger student by his genitals. According to two criminal complaints, the incidents began in December 2021. A report says a sophomore at Highland Schools came home from school December 17th and told his parents an older student had come up to him and grabbed his penis. Initially, the student asked his parents to not do anything about it because he thought the situation would resolve itself. However, the grabbing continued, and the student said a second older student began taking part as well. Four days after the initial incident, the student’s mother reached out to the school principal to address the situation, but didn’t hear anything back. She then followed up with the school superintendent, meeting with him for two hours that same night. The morning after, the student received a text message from the first boy saying he was sorry for grabbing him. The student told investigators that after his parents reported the incident, he was treated worse at school. It got bad enough that the student’s parents pulled him out of Highland Schools and are looking to move him to another district. School officials initially described the incidents as “horseplay that went too far.” The older of the two students served an in-school suspension and missed a wrestling field trip to UW-Platteville, but was allowed to continue competing in athletic events. According to the criminal complaint, the student was initially meant to miss a wrestling match as punishment, but his parents disputed it. His wrestling coach suggested that he miss the field trip instead, and he also would work community service at youth wrestling practices and tournaments for the remainder of the year. The parents of the boy felt this was an inadequate punishment, and investigators pointed out a potential conflict of interest in that the school principal’s daughter was in a relationship with the student in question.
