‘Heinous’ and ‘outrageous’: Records detail charge against Summerlin school’s class president accused of recording sex assault

Editor’s note: This story includes graphic descriptions of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.

A group of Summerlin private school students sexually assaulted a peer with ChapStick, a flute, and toothpaste while on a school trip in Costa Rica, court records allege.

Only one of them, 15-year-old Vaughn Griffith, a class president and an elite youth golfer, has been charged as an adult after a judge called the acts “heinous” and “outrageous.”

Griffith faces one felony count of possessing a visual presentation depicting the sexual conduct of a child in connection with an April 2025 incident, court records show. Griffith, who was an eighth grader at The Alexander Dawson School at the time of the alleged offense, was indicted Jan. 15.

Griffith was first taken into juvenile custody on July 29, which was eight days after the Southern Nevada Junior Golf Association named him a “Sportsperson of the Year,” according to an Instagram post that was still active Monday.

Dawson is a private school in Summerlin, near West Desert Inn Road and the 215 Beltway. Kindergarten through eighth grade tuition costs $32,500 for the 2026-27 school year, according to the school’s website.

District Judge Linda Marquis found that a short period in a juvenile detention center was not appropriate in Griffith’s case.

“The public interest and safety require that some youths be held accountable as adults for their criminal misconduct and be subject to controls, punishment, deterrence and retribution found only in the adult criminal justice system,” Marquis wrote in Griffith’s certification papers.

The judge continued: “Certainly there are criminal offenses which are so heinous and so outrageous that standing alone they would require transfer even absent a record of prior criminal activity.”

Did not ‘want them to get in trouble’

According to court records, the victim’s stepmother told Roxanne Stansbury, the school’s principal, that during a school trip to Costa Rica, her stepson, who was 14, was penetrated using a ChapStick.

The stepmother also accused one of the boys of raping the victim.

Earlier, Stansbury had questioned the five boys allegedly involved about reports that they had spanked and mooned each other on the trip, Griffith’s arrest report said. All of the boys characterized the behavior as horseplay and joking around, according to police.

After hearing about the new allegations from the stepmother, Stansbury contacted the police to report them.

When police questioned the victim, he said that he had originally lied to school staff because he did not “want them to get in trouble.”

The victim said a group of students, including Griffith, were hanging out again when several boys pinned him down and assaulted him.

“Victim, because he did not like what was occurring, attempted to get up and leave, but could not get up,” court records said. “Victim stated at this point he saw the group spray sunscreen and toothpaste into his anus, causing it to burn.”

Authorities said Griffith recorded a two-minute-16-second video of the assault and saved it in his Snapchat “Memories” gallery. The recording allegedly showed Griffith switching from the front-facing camera, which showed his face, to the rear camera which captured the sexual acts perpetrated on the victim.

‘It’s clearly sexual’

Griffith’s arrest report said the boys had also used a flute to assault the victim and poured water on him while telling him to “fight back.”

The victim told the boys to stop, but Griffith instructed one of the boys to rape the victim, according to court records. The group of boys threatened to post a video of the incident, which multiple boys allegedly recorded.

At the end of the video, one of the boys said “it’s clearly sexual,” to which another replied “assault.”

In a separate incident on the same trip, the victim also told police that the group had entered his hotel room, undressed him, and thrown his clothes on the balcony. The victim reported having been bullied by the group in the past.

It is unclear whether the other boys — described by prosecutors as all around the age of 14 — are facing or will later face charges related to the alleged assault.

Court records indicate that Griffith was not charged with sexual assault because the alleged assault took place in Costa Rica, and the child pornography charge was approved because the video was found on his phone after he returned to Nevada.

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com