The family of a nine-year-old girl is suing the Portland Public Schools [PPS] district for failing to protect her from two students who allegedly locked her in a bathroom stall at Scott Elementary School and took turns raping her.
Rather than call the police, the lawsuit alleges, “PPS staff undertook their own internal investigation,” according to The Oregonian’s “Oregon Live.”
The little girl was interviewed by the staff “without immediately notifying her family or legal representatives,” the outlet reports. Ultimately, the accused boys “were suspended for one day,” the lawsuit states.
The horrifying incident allegedly took place in April 2022 after “two other students in the after-school Schools Uniting Neighborhoods, or SUN, program told the girl that they would ‘find out where she lived’ unless she told the after-school program’s staff that she needed to go to the bathroom,” Oregon Live reports.
“She did so, the lawsuit alleges, and the students followed her there locked her in a stall, removed her pants and took turns forcibly penetrating her as she protested,” the outlet continues. “She couldn’t escape, the lawsuit charges, because her alleged assaulters took turns blocking the stall doors.”
NEW: Portland family sues Portland Public School district for $9 million after their daughter was allegedly ‘gang r*ped’ in the school bathroom.
The girl was allegedly assaulted by two male students in the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods program.
It gets worse. The boys only… pic.twitter.com/EJLRDgzTm6
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 4, 2024
After hearing about the incident, it was the father of one of the male students involved who reported it to school employees. That’s when the school declined to call the police, allegedly choosing instead to grill the little girl.
It took a month of disrupting his children’s education for the victim’s father to complete the process of transferring his daughter and her younger brother to a different district school, according to the suit.
“The alleged perpetrators, meanwhile, were suspended for one day, the lawsuit says,” according to Oregon Live, as the little girl continues to cope with trauma, pain, suffering, social anxiety, and academic setbacks.
“The lawsuit charges that Portland Public Schools, along with SUN program affiliates, is liable for a host of failures, including not teaching students about sexual boundaries, not enforcing rules around sexual behavior on school property and not communicating with other adult caregivers about the plaintiff’s history and safety concerns,” the outlet reports.
According to Sydney Kelly, a spokesperson for Portland Public Schools, the district is “investigating” the allegations.
“The district learned of these new allegations last week when we received the lawsuit, and we are investigating,” Kelly said. “We are mandatory reporters, meaning we must report any instance of possible child abuse and neglect. We take our responsibilities as mandatory reporters seriously and follow the law around reporting.”
The little girl reportedly had a history of enduring sexual abuse at the hands of her fellow students at Scott Elementary.
“According to the lawsuit, when the student was in third grade at Scott Elementary in Northeast Portland in 2022, one of her classmates touched her genitals over her clothing without her permission during a class overseen by a district educator. In a separate incident that same school year, the suit alleges, another student tried to kiss the girl without her permission and she hit him to protect herself,” according to Oregon Live. “In response to the latter incident, both students were suspended and the school told the girl’s father that they would enact a ‘safety plan’ for her, the suit says.”
The family of the little girl is seeking up to $9 million in damages.
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Author: Melissa Fine
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