A Brighton Area Schools committee formed as an outgrowth of sexual assaults has held its second meeting, and according to officials, it has made progress already.

The Social and Emotional Task Force met last week, and after Monday’s Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Greg Gray told WHMI that school administrators attending the task force meeting decided to group items up for discussion into two groups, based on grade level. The second item the task force discussed is the reporting mechanisms the district does now and if there are more topics the district could lend its support to through its counselors, social workers, principals and other administrators.

Gray said the district is also looking at a resource guide to put into paper form so any student who is struggling with any kind of issue — social, emotional or other — has an organized way to address it. The task force also looked at different programs that can be transitioned within, and between, district school buildings. Gray says the next meeting of the task force will be sometime in mid-February.

The 16-year-old former Brighton High School student who committed sexual assaults against three victims returned home in December after serving a brief sentence in juvenile detention. The boy was originally sentenced to just 45 days in a juvenile facility but his release was delayed until a psychiatric evaluation was able to be held and a safety plan developed. The boy was originally charged with 20 counts of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct in the alleged sexual assaults of the girls on numerous occasions. He ended up pleading guilty in juvenile court to a single count of raping a 13-year-old and lesser charges involving his actions involving two other girls, who were 12 at the time. The assaults did not occur on school grounds; however, the boy will not be allowed to return to Brighton High School. (TT)