Teen to be charged in Weare sex caseWEARE - A 17-year-old Henniker boy who admitted to having sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend will "absolutely" be arrested for sexual assault, police said yesterday. Weare Police Detective Lou Chatel said the boy will be charged as an adult.
He said the Class A misdemeanor offense is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Chatel said he does not believe the boy will have to register as a sex offender, but will have to report the arrest on college and job applications.
Both teens admitted to having sex during the school day, but off school property, Chatel said.
The girl is six months shy of her 16th birthday.
She and her siblings have since transferred to another school, said Michael Turmelle, the principal at John Stark Regional High School.
On top of the pending criminal charge, police said the 17-year-old also was beaten by the girl's father after the father learned the two had sex.
It was Monday, Sept. 10 when the girl's father stormed school property and attacked the boy around 3 p.m., according to Turmelle.
School had just let out and the parking lot was filled with students and parents when the alleged assault occurred.
The boy suffered cuts and bruises and received two stitches to his face. The father was arrested and charged with simple assault, a Class B felony. He has not yet been arraigned.
The principal said he's upset at the number of people who have sided with the father over this incident.
"We all work so hard to give our kids a safe place to go to," he said. "Any time we have an act of violence, it's very upsetting because it is completely antithetical to what we're trying to accomplish."
The entire incident began that morning when the 15-year-old girl failed to show up for her first-period class, even though her social studies teacher saw her earlier that morning at school.
School officials searched the building, then put out a school-wide page. When the girl didn't respond, they called her parents.
The parents helped to search for their daughter, called her cell phone and coordinated with school officials, Turmelle said. The father seemed calm at the time, Turmelle said.
Both students returned to school at the same time, through separate entrances.
The boy had an excused absence, but the girl did not -- she was given Saturday detention.
Turmelle said the incident is over and done with from the school's perspective.
"We dealt with the whole situation from an educational perspective. We shared what information we could, made resources available to parents and kids. We've moved on."
Turmelle described the two students as "both very nice young people."
