Sheriff: Former Whitfield teacher didn’t report rape allegation

DALTON — A former Northwest Whitfield High School teacher was arrested Friday after a female student told him she had been sexually assaulted at a party they both attended and he did not report it to authorities, the sheriff said.

Lamar Cofield, 34, of Frontier Drive, was charged with failure to report suspected child abuse. Whitfield County Schools Communications Specialist Eric Beavers said Cofield resigned as a teacher and coach at Northwest last week.

According to a press release from Sheriff Scott Chitwood, on Sept. 29 the family of a high school student said she had been raped while attending a party on July 1. An investigation was begun by the sheriff’s office and the GBI.

Investigators found that five high school students attended a party in Pleasant Grove where a male student lived on the night of July 1, and alcohol “was being consumed by the kids at the party,” the press release said. It said the underage students “consumed alcohol” in the presence of an adult female, Ashley Turner, a relative to the student living at the residence, and she “consumed alcohol” with them.

According to the release, Cofield came by for more than an hour, and he “observed the students consuming alcohol.” A female student told him and Turner that she had been sexually assaulted.

The release said that as an employee of the school system, Cofield was a “mandatory reporter” but “did not report the assault or activity of the students to authorities or school personnel.”