Family claims non-verbal 7-year-old boy was raped on southern Indiana school bus

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A southern Indiana family plans to sue after a 7-year-old non-verbal boy was allegedly raped multiple times over three days in April on a Jennings County School Corporation school bus.

According to FOX59, family members said the second-grader was raped repeatedly on the bus by a 15-year-old.

The North Vernon Police Department confirmed a 15-year-old is being held in a juvenile detention center. He has reportedly been charged with rape. Court documents say the alleged assaults were recorded by at least one school bus camera. School officials are now looking back at video from the entire school year to look for other possible incidents.

A tort claim filed by the family's attorneys alleges that Jennings County School Corporation acted with gross negligence, violated the child's civil rights and caused permanent harm, according to FOX59.

"This nightmare tragedy should never have happened. How could both the bus driver and the additional bus monitor aide not notice anything?" Wagner Rese attorney Laura Swafford in a statement to FOX59. "Like all parents in the community, the boy's family believed the school would protect their young, vulnerable son.

"The family entrusted the school to protect their son by monitoring activity on the bus. The school system breached this trust and clearly failed in its responsibility."

Jennings County School Corporation released the following statement on April 29:

“We are aware of the legal filing connected to very concerning incidents that allegedly occurred on one of our special transportation buses, and we will respond to this filing through the appropriate legal channels.

We cannot go into any detail about this situation because we are cooperating with an active police investigation and additionally are involved in this litigation.

I want to emphasize, though, that these reports involving students’ safety have been heartbreaking and devastating to all of us. Nothing is more important than the safety of our students.

While this incident must still be investigated and resolved through our criminal justice system, we are taking steps to try to better ensure the safety of our students. As I have previously reported to our parents and staff, those steps include:

Adding adult supervisors to the special transportation bus in question who will actively monitor student behavior for the duration of each trip.
Reducing the number of students on each special transportation bus.
Seating students individually whenever possible on all special transportation buses.
Grouping students with similar-aged peers when individual seating is not available.
Requiring similar peer-aged seating on all general education bus routes.
Using our recorded monitoring system to quickly identify and address inappropriate behavior if it occurs.

The safety and well-being of our students is paramount, and we will work with our families to support their needs and address any concerns.

Given that this is active litigation, we do not plan to have any further comments at this time.”

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