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Syracuse schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras listens during an editorial board meeting of The Post-Standard last December.

(David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com)

Minutes after H.W. Smith PTO President Heidi Teska told the Syracuse school board Wednesday that a sexual assault had occurred at her school, The Post-Standard asked Superintendent Sharon Contreras about it.

Contreras acknowledged there had been an incident Nov. 6 in which a 12-year-old girl had been pushed into a bathroom and kept inside against her will.

She said she wasn't sure whether two or three boys were involved. But she did appear certain of what one of the boys did to the girl inside the bathroom.

"He kissed her and she walked out of the bathroom," she said.

She added, "Under the code of conduct I think that's considered sexual."

She stressed that the girl was not harmed, and that "what was disturbing is that they pushed someone into the bathroom against (her) will."

That night and the next morning, Syracuse police gave The Post-Standard a different account. Police Sgt. Tom Connellan said there were three boys involved. One was charged with forcible touching after he groped the girl's private parts over her clothes, he said. The other two were charged with unlawful imprisonment.

Why were the two accounts so different?

Contreras was not available for comment Thursday or today because she is at meetings with the New York State Council of School Superintendents in Albany, district communications coordinator Michael Henesey said.

But Henesey said Contreras' comments Wednesday were based on her understanding from the school's initial investigation of the incident and her early conversations with the school principal.

It is true that the assault victim's first account of the incident was not as detailed as it became during a second interview. Connellan said police interviewed her on Nov. 7 at the school, then interviewed her again at her home on Nov. 11. He said that in the more comfortable atmosphere of the second interview, the girl provided a much deeper account. He did not provide the full details of the two accounts.

Police charged the three boys Nov. 12 -- the day after the second interview.

What is left unexplained is why the superintendent apparently did not know the full story of what happened at H.W. Smith eight days after police arrested the three boys.

Henesey said police notified the district of the arrests the day they were made.

Connellan said police do not routinely provide the district with incident reports involving juveniles.

District Chief Operations Officer Jaime Alicea requested the police report on the incident Thursday and it arrived today, Henesey said. Henesey said it was the first time he had seen the report.

He said the superintendent still has not seen the police report or spoken to police about the incident.

Contact Paul Riede at priede@syracuse.com or 470-3260. Follow him on Twitter at @PaulRiede.