Family of boy allegedly raped on Jennings Co. special bus files claim against school

Full statement from attorneys is below

(NORTH VERNON, Ind.) – The family of a 7-year-old boy plans to sue the Jennings County School Corporation after an alleged incident on a special needs school bus earlier this month. 

The second grader was allegedly raped by a 15-year-old student. The older student has reportedly been charged with rape. 

The law firm representing the family served an Indiana Tort Claim Notice against the school corporation on Tuesday. 

The notice alleges that the school was ‘grossly negligent, violated the child’s civil rights, and caused him permanent injuries and damages.’

“The victim is a non-verbal special education student who was improperly seated directly next to a much older 15-year-old student and was helplessly left unmonitored by two school employees who were on the bus and charged with caring for his safety,” said Laura Swafford, who is an attorney with Wagner Reese. 

Swafford also alleges that video footage shows the boy being sexually assaulted and raped on multiple occasions.

“But neither the Corporation’s bus driver nor the extra bus monitor employee did anything to stop the assaults,” Swafford added.

The tort claim follows an earlier statement from the school corporation where they said they are taking all necessary steps to ensure the safety of students. 

“Our special transportation buses have additional adult supervision, a recorded monitoring system, and fewer students. We will be further adding safety measures to seat students individually when possible,” the school said.

“If students must be seated in assigned pairs, they will be grouped with similar-aged peers, and additional adult supervision will be provided on that bus. We will also be requiring similar peer aged seating on all general education bus routes,” the school added.

The school corporation added that they have been consulting with local law enforcement and working diligently to address the issue.

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Here is the full statement provided by the law firm representing the family: