A former Mountlake Terrace High School senior has been charged with third-degree rape after an incident in January involving a freshman.

Deputy prosecuting attorney Randy Yates filed charging documents on Tuesday, April 12. MLTnews will not name the suspect as he is still a juvenile. He turns 18 later this year. The victim was age 15 at the time of the alleged attack.

According to court records, the suspect and victim both attended Mountlake Terrace High School. They did not know each other until the suspect sent the victim a message over Facebook inviting her to a party over winter break. She did not attend the party, as her parents did not allow her to go, but after winter break, the two began talking at school. One time, the suspect drove the victim home from school.

On Jan. 5, the suspect told the victim he would like to ask her out, but he shouldn’t because “he could get in trouble” because freshmen and seniors cannot date. Later that day, the suspect ran into the victim at her locker and kissed her. The kiss was consensual and the victim told two of her friends.

Two days later, they said hello to each other again in the hallway. The suspect asked the victim if she would like to hang out after school. She declined because she had dance practice after school.

After practice, the victim walked back to her locker. The suspect followed her. They began kissing by the locker. According to the victim, he then grabbed her wrist and pulled her around the corner, out of the line of sight from the main hallway.

They continued kissing and eventually the suspect allegedly picked her up and brought her to the end of the hallway. Once there, court documents say he touched her under her shirt and she told him to stop. He did not stop, then continued to sexually assault her and rape her.

Court documents say the victim repeatedly told him to stop and she kicked him in the shin.

After the incident, the victim was reportedly bleeding badly. A dark blue shirt was used to wipe up the blood, which was later found in the suspect’s house after a search warrant was issued.

Later that evening, the victim told her mother she was raped. Her father called 9-1-1.

After the incident was reported, the suspect was expelled from Mountlake Terrace High School.

Mountlake Terrace High School’s principal Greg Schwab posted a letter on the school’s website in January. In the letter, he called the incident “a very serious matter.”

“I want to emphasize and assure you that at no time was there a general threat to student safety,” Schwab wrote in the letter. “The safety of all our students and staff is our priority and we are reviewing the supervision measures we have in place during after-school activities.”

Schwab shared information about the alleged attack after receiving permission from the victim’s family to do so. The family reported in January that the victim is recovering.

–By Natalie Covate