Parents Sue School District For Not Protecting Their Daughter
June 13, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The parents of a sixth grade girl with autism are filing a lawsuit against the Fort Wayne Community Schools, on the grounds that the district failed to protect their daughter. As reported in today’s Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana),
The girl, a special education student with autism, was allegedly sexually molested by another student on two occasions on April 25, 2007, during a classroom movie session, according to court documents.
After each incident the girl told her teachers, school principal and bus driver about what had happened, the document said. When the girl’s mother called school officials, she said she was told that an “incident happened at school … but nothing had occurred and that the student’s hormones were involved,” according to court documents.
The girl’s family is seeking damages for her emotional suffering, medical and psychological treatment, and payment for the expense of attending another school, according to court documents.
Terrible awful, and not the first such crime of this sort noted here—-and a puzzling response from the school district.
FYI – The link to the journal gazette is not working. I posted a link last nite about a family with 8 kids who forgot their disabled four year old in the car, 17 hours later he died. Not sure if you got that one posted.
It’s a shame all of those responsible for her safety were so willing to dismiss her side of the story.
Apathy has the potential to be our children’s worst enemy.
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080613/LOCAL/546654557/1002/LOCAL
When blacks were slaves, whites did not take their sexuality seriously, either.
Anytime you dehumanize someone, it’s all the same.
And perhaps not surprisingly, this story came from the state of Florida.
Joe
“the student’s hormones were involved”? Well, that’s a lousy excuse for allowing sexual abuse amongst lousy excuses for such things. How disgusting.
Cliff
I aree Cliff about that terrible statement. The mindset of these people who work at schools is astounding.
It’s really like a different planet, isn’t it.
Going back to that quote,
“…The nondisabled world sees powerlessness as the natural product of dependence and dependence as the natural product of our needs. However, for nondisabled people, needs are met routinely without restricting your freedom. In the gulag, you have no power. The gulag swallows your money, separates you from your friends, makes you fearful, robs you of your capacity to say — or even know — what you want…”
Not this again.
At least the girl got to tell her parents about what happened. Something’s being done about it. Good for her, and thank goodness.
Something like this happening to my child has been a fear of mine for years.
Not surprising. This is OUR school district that we pulled M out of. You could not pay me enough to put her back in that district. Terrible.
Oh my goodness, Marla—-I’d pull Charlie immediately. I was very struck by the fact that the child in this case could and did tell people. Charlie couldn’t, not in words, at least.