ST. MATTHEWS -- Although it's been nearly three weeks since a Calhoun County High School girl reported being molested at school, her family awaits answers.

Both parents of the teenager say they are getting the run-around from school officials concerning an incident on school property Sept. 12.

"Every time you call or go up there, they walk away, turn their backs," the father said. "They don't want to talk about it."

What the parents of the youth say the school doesn't want to talk about is an incident during which two boys allegedly assaulted their 16-year-old daughter.

According to a Calhoun County Sheriff's Office report, the girl entered a locker room to retrieve a pair of safety glasses. When she entered, two boys, ages 15 and 16, "grabbed her shirt and told her to unbutton the shirt or they would unbutton the shirt for her."

The girl told deputies she shoved the two youths and fled the locker room.

Calhoun County Sheriff Thomas Summers said the matter has been turned over to the Department of Juvenile Justice. That agency is still investigating, Summers said.

"We have sent the report to DJJ, and they'll be handling it from there," Summers said.

The Department of Juvenile Justice confirmed Wednesday it had received the report and, as standard procedure, is reviewing the information.

"We are doing a risk assessment of the two individuals," DJJ spokesperson Loretta Neal said. "That will take at least a couple of days."

Those couple of days to complete a risk assessment come on the 19th day the family has waited for an answer.

Charges, the mother said in a telephone interview Wednesday, have been filed. A spokesperson at DJJ told the mother that agency had pressed its case.

Neal said, however, DJJ had turned the case over to the 1st Circuit solicitor's office.

Laura McCann, who handles juvenile cases for the 1st Circuit, was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the mother says the case could be pressed on two fronts -- first, a law enforcement investigation and, second, an internal school situation.

Law enforcement appears to be carrying out its duties while school officials seem to have washed their hands of the matter, she said.

"It's just the school that drives me crazy," the mother said.

All Calhoun County High School students are required to carry a school handbook. The book describes not only types of offenses but punishments as well.

Sexual assault is a Level III offense, according to the book, that constitutes "administrative actions, which result in the immediate removal of the student from the school."

"They're definitely still there," the mother said. "They told me yesterday, with the decision they made, they weren't going to do anything, suspend them, throw them out like the book said, or anything."

Attempts to contact Calhoun County School Superintendent Shirley Martin for a response were unsuccessful on Wednesday.

No answers in hand, parents of the victim said they attended a recent school board forum. The meeting was a humiliating experience, the mother said, when it appeared school officials seemed not to care about the matter.

"They were shaking hands and laughing and us, the parents, sitting right there," she said.

Both parents say they only seek justice or at the very least answers as to why a sexual assault can occur and the perpetrators remain unpunished.

"If it were my child that did something, you'd see my child getting punished," the mother said. "I don't think they should just be able to walk away. They were going to suspend my daughter for using the phone when she called me."

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5516.

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