Two Texas high school softball coaches have been charged with covering up a series of sexual assaults — allegedly because the suspect is “a good player” needed on the team.
Prosper High School head coach Renna Bersosa and her assistant Kasie Ostrom were told on Aug. 7 that one of their athletes had abused three other students during summer break sleepovers, according to a police affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
But Bersosa responded by saying that “the suspect in the sexual assaults is a good player, and they don’t want to lose her,” the reporting student told the cops.
The head coach told the student to “handle this with the suspect” herself — and to tell her “that if she does not stop committing sexual assault, she will report this to the coach,” the affidavit states.
The student said she then sent the accused abuser a text with that warning, the report said, without detailing if there was a response.
Ostrom was also at the meeting but did not say anything, the reporting student’s mom told police.
Neither educator went to authorities, even though Texas law requires educators who believe such abuse may be occurring to report it within 48 hours, the Morning News noted.
When interviewed by the cops, Berososa claimed “she was not aware she had to report a third-party allegation,” the affidavit said.
Both coaches were arrested — Bersosa on Friday and Ostrom on Tuesday — on a charge of misdemeanor failure to report child abuse.
They have also been fired, the school district confirmed to the Morning News.
None of the students were identified, and it was not clear if any action was taken against the girl accused of sexual assault.
The district addressed the scandal in a letter to parents, Fox4 said.
“State law mandates educators file a report within 48 hours when they develop suspicions of potential child abuse or neglect,” the letter read.
“Prosper ISD requires employees to undergo training to ensure they know the proper steps to report such cases.”
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