Conway Public School officials are quietly preparing to fight a lawsuit that alleges administrators and teachers failed to protect an 8-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by another girl student.
On one side, parents have filed a lawsuit saying school district officials are indifferent to child sexual assault. On the other side, the parents never reported the abuse to the Conway Police Department so police could start an investigation.
“The facts are not what [the plaintiffs] stated,” the school’s attorney Sharon Streett said Thursday.
In the affidavit of the lawsuit filed in the Faulkner County Courthouse on July 6, attorneys said that in August 2011 the child was repeatedly pressured into sex acts by another 8-year-old girl, constantly bullied, came home with pulled hair and clothes torn and showed emotional distress, including “soiling herself.”
“The sexual abuse included uninvited touching of intimate parts and penetration of both the anal and vaginal cavities of the minor plaintiff,” according to the affidavit.
On Aug. 26, 2011, the girls’ teacher confiscated three to four letters from the alleged perpetrator to the victim. The letters were “sexual in nature,” according to the affidavit.
Molly Lucas, an attorney for the parents, refused to reveal the letters. Streett called the letters part of educational records that are exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act.
Four days after the letters were discovered by the teacher, school officials talked to the victim’s parents about the letters. On Aug. 31, school officials met with the child and at least one parent and were told about several incidences “of sexual abuse that occurred” in the bathroom, according to courthouse records.
School officials did not report the incidents to the state Department of Human Services. On Aug. 31, the parents reported the abuse to the state, according to the affidavit. School employees are mandated reporters under Arkansas law.
A report was not made to the Conway Police Department, spokeswoman La Tresha Woodruff said. Faulkner County Prosecutor Cody Hiland said in email he heard about the case through media reports and didn’t know of any law enforcement investigations.
Lucas said she would not comment on why no report was filed.
Streett said she couldn’t comment on a pending court case, but she did say there is a reason school officials didn’t report the incidents as abuse. And, although the affidavit contends the school allowed bullying, Streett said “bullying is not an issue in this.”
A quick search of courthouse documents revealed no previous lawsuits against the school for bullying, but bullying is happening at Conway’s schools.
A police report filed Sunday spotlighted the bullying of a 16-year-old girl who found a vulgar sign taped to her home and told police she was harassed at school. Two months earlier, parents of fifth graders said during a public meeting that they worried about putting their children into schools with older children as part of the redistricting at Conway Public Schools.
“I can tell you that since I filed the lawsuit, I have had people come out of the woodwork who were disappointed in how the school handled bullying with their kids,” Lucas said.
Superintendent Greg Murry said he couldn’t talk about bullying, school policies or the lawsuit. In email, Murry said: “Based on the advice of our lawyer, we are not making any comments. We have nothing to hide, but since this [bullying] is one of the points of the pending litigation, we will not be making any comments or quotes.”
Board Chairman Bill Clements said bullying is a problem statewide, but Conway Public Schools are on top of trying to prevent bullying and catch it, he said. The school district does a good job, he said.
Even if the incidents were between two children, school officials are supposed to report it, Lucas said. Officials should have known to take the harassment seriously after seeing the letters, according to the affidavit. Officials “had a duty to protect the minor,” the affidavit said.
Yet, even after the victim was removed from the classroom Sept. 1 and placed in another class, she was still being harassed by the other child on the playground and in hallways, according to the courthouse document. The alleged perpetrator also called the victim at home.
It took about a month for parents to receive a waiver for their child to transfer from Jim Stone Elementary School to Julia Lee Moore Elementary School, according to the affidavit. Things appeared better for the child, but she did have some behavior problems that were not specifically named in the affidavit. In February, the district revoked the waiver and told the parents “she would have to return to Jim Stone Elementary,” the school where the abuse occurred, according to the affidavit.
The lawsuit charges against six officials and the school district included statutory liability, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence, according to the affidavit. Those charged are: the district, Mark Lewis, Linda Jackson, Karen Carney, Carroll Bishop, K.K. Bradshaw and Murry.
Lucas said the parents want a jury trail. The family was “basically ran out of the Conway school district,” she said.
The girl is being home schooled and is no longer a student in Conway Public Schools. But home schooling is expensive. The parents are suing the school district to pay for their child’s education, counseling and pain and suffering, Lucas said.
No amount has been set.
Comments (14)
Add commentwait how can Chairman
wait how can Chairman Clements say the district is on top of bullying yet Murry can not even talk about the policy? WTF did the Board and Superintendent not put this policy in place? You give a waiver and then force the child back into the school where the incidents took place?
As for what appears to have happened WTH is going on with kids today that are no more than 2nd or 3rd grade.
apples do not fall far from the tree
I really hope both children receive a lot of counseling and support. I also hope the abusive child's parents are thoroughly investigated as well.
Exactly!
Eight year olds do NOT come up with that type of deviance on their own, it is learned.....
Amen! The 'bully' learned
Amen! The 'bully' learned this behavior somewhere. Of course the 'bully's behavior should be OFFICIALLY dealt with, but she is also a victim. She is, after all, a child too.
Our public schools are notorious for protecting the school's so-called image above all else...shades of Penn State. (Schools can't do everything, but asking that out children are in a safe environment while at school isn't too burdensome a requirement.)
As difficult as these kind of behavior problems are, they'll only get worse and cost us more if they're not addressed.
It isn't often we agree, but Krg2 is on the mark here...
It is unfortunate but our schools are essentially powerless to deal with bullying, therefore school officials will consider their efforts complete by pointing to policies designed to address bullying which are, in fact, toothless.
School officials often turn to school counselors in an effort to correct the bullying child's behavior. The problem is that many bullies like the extra attention provided to them and when the bully is returned to the classroom (and away from the extra attention), the bully will likely resume the offending action(s).
Past this, most schools quickly run out of other (useful) solutions. Verbal lectures are worthless (and ignored by most bullies), corporal punishment is helpful to an extent but school officials are too reluctant to use it.
Separating students on a playground is also ineffective because the few duty teachers assigned to the playground cannot adequately monitor a large number of students and keep in mind all of the students who must be separated. Here is another area where school officials work against themselves by assigning too few teachers and / or staff to playground duty.
It would also be shocking for most parents to know how little time principals spend on playgrounds. There are many incidents reported to principals by playground staff that are insufficiently dealt with because the principal does not see the incident as severe when they do not witness the act and / or often has administrative meetings to attend. In short, principals need to spend more time in lunchrooms and on playgrounds if bully prevention is indeed an area of emphasis.
At the same time, school officials need to have the ability to suspend students for more than 10 days in a school year. A good number of bullies will hit the 10 day maximum suspension days with a good chunk of the school year remaining. You can imagine these bullies will easily run amok.....
I think
I think a major point would be (based on what facts come out) that Conway Schools did not report possible sexual/abuse/assault as required by state law. We do not know at this point what the school did or did not know or have reasonable knowledge of. However, the part about the letters being "educational records" is pretty much a sign of a cover up. I do recall not only having a note confiscated but also being forced to read it out loud to the class but there is possibility the laws have changed since the late 1800's......
This is much more than kids playing doctor out behind the shed and it doesnt sound like the school took the threats and or actions very seriously. Can you say Penn State ?
Horrible!
This stinks! Why would our district not report this incident the minute they were made aware of it? Are district officials covering up other incidents? What a sad day for CPSD. Shame on all involved.
CPS officials say
There is more to the story than in the affidavit, which is one parties version of events, CPS officials tell me. We still don't know who knew what when.
Teachers and administrators are mandated reporters, but they have to suspect abuse.
I am keeping an open mind about this case but hope more is revealed as the case proceeds.
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Terrible!
This is really disheartening for me as parent who has recently reloacted to Conway. It's sad that in this day and time kids how are practically babies are being bombared with issues involving sex. Kids are having to learn to handle situations regarding sexuality and having sex HOW TERRIBLE is this for an 8 year old?! It really concerns me that the district is doing such a poor job with maintaining the safety of kids. I have also learned of 3 other bullying incidents - one of which landed a high schooler in the hospital. I'm thinking my family should reconsider our move!