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Upper school students at Cranbrook and their parents are keeping mum about a crowded house party where two girls say they were sexually assaulted, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Department.
"We are not getting a lot of people coming forward," Undersheriff Michael McCabe tells Downtown Birmingham/Bloomfield magazine. "There are serious allegations here that we want to get to the bottom of."
Kingswood dining room for grades 9-12.
(Cranbrook School photos)
The agency wants to know more about an Oakland Township gathering two weekends ago. "It is believed about 100 youths gathered with the permission of the adult homeowner, a parent of one of two female students who hosted the event," the suburban monthly reports.
Cranbrook Kingswood is a prestigious college prep school in Bloomfield Hills. Tuition is $33,100 a year for day students and $45,000 for those living on the 319-acre campus, according to a Boarding School Review database. About one-third of students get financial aid.
Detectives are following up on sexual assault reports Oct. 29 and 30, not long after the Saturday night party. "They reported it right away," McCabe says of the students, who are 16 and 17.
Investigators want to question a senior, according to the article by editor Lisa Brody and reporter Kevin Elliott, based partly on information from unnamed "members of the Cranbrook community."
"We have a suspect, but we haven't been able to talk to him," it quotes McCabe as saying.
"We aren't sure if he's involved in both assaults, but at least one. He's not talking to us. I believe he has an attorney. . . .
"Definitely something happened, and there was drinking going on. We aren't sure if someone put something in a drink, or what happened. All that evidence is gone, and no other attendees of the party have approached us. There are other parents that have to know if their kids were there. . . .
"If you saw something, say something."
The 319-acre Bloomfield Hills college prep school serves day students and boarding students.
A host's father reportedly was home during the bash, according to McCabe, who notes that criminal sexual conduct is just one focus of the case. "We want to know where [alcohol] came from and who gave it to them."
Most guests apparently were students at the nationally known private school, McCabe tells the journalists. Detectives believe 50 to 100 teens attended, but Brody and Elliott report a higher number -- up to 130. They cite "tips from outside the sheriff's office" and add that "a few students whose parents may hold a position with Cranbrook Schools" could have been present.
Tipsters won't be charged with underage drinking, the sheriff's department promises.
The college prep school has its own investigation under way, Downtown magazine says.
