Sexual assault cases create notable obstacles for investigative reporters. Verifying such events frequently means dealing with minimal witnesses, missing documentation and conflicting descriptions of the incident. Identifying records that demonstrate mishandling by authorities or schools adds another layer of complexity.

Every investigation aims to show the issue affects more than one individual or household and points to broader systemic shortcomings with statewide or community-wide consequences.

This account seemed to meet those criteria from the outset. The student at the center, referred to by her middle name Larissa, reported to Hobbs school staff and police that she had been assaulted on school grounds. Video of the alleged incident spread through the district. Witnesses existed, and both the school and police maintained records of the report.

Established protocols exist to safeguard students in such circumstances. Failures in those protocols here would signal problems extending beyond Hobbs Municipal Schools to students statewide.

We spoke with nearly a dozen specialists in school-related sexual violence, mental health and law enforcement. Their views were consistent: police and school personnel should have treated Larissa's report with urgency, conducted thorough probes and implemented measures to shield her from retaliation or academic setbacks.

Larissa's description formed the core of the reporting. She had shared details of the alleged assault promptly with her mother and other professionals supporting students.

Covering Larissa's experience demanded thorough work over four months that included:

More than a dozen conversations with Larissa and her mother, conducted jointly or separately, to build a precise timeline and account of her experiences before, during and after the school incident. We revisited questions repeatedly to confirm consistency in the details.
Discussions with individuals possessing direct knowledge who could verify those details but could not be identified due to child privacy regulations.
Phone logs, text exchanges and documents from police and the school district that aligned with the timeline and facts gathered through interviews.

Next we examined the broader scope of the issue. We filed 14 records requests with police, emergency dispatch services and the New Mexico Public Education Department to determine whether Hobbs represented an exception or part of a wider pattern.

The documents revealed that Hobbs schools contacted police nearly 50 times across three school years regarding rape, sexual assault or non-consensual sharing of student images. Some incidents occurred off campus and did not involve schools, while others took place on school property.

We reviewed the latest figures from the New Mexico Department of Health Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey on student experiences with sexual violence. The data indicated higher rates of such incidents among students in Lea County.

Court records were examined for lawsuits against the district involving comparable situations. Five cases had been filed in the past three school years. We interviewed attorneys, parents and students connected to those matters.

To compare Hobbs with the rest of New Mexico and the nation, we collected publicly available statistics from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program on offenses recorded by local agencies nationwide.

Using Newshound, an AI tool for journalists created by researcher Marc Drumwright, we sorted the figures by agency and offense category. The review showed how frequently rape and sexual assault were reported to each New Mexico law enforcement body and how often arrests followed.

The results indicated that rape and sexual assault reports in Hobbs occurred at a rate exceeding 2.5 times the national average, ranking third highest in the state. Ninety-six percent of such cases in Hobbs remained unsolved. Many other New Mexico agencies showed similarly low clearance rates for these crimes.

Combined with public records, interviews and field reporting, the information demonstrated that Larissa's alleged experience was not isolated and that protective systems had not functioned as intended.

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