Inclusion Daily Express -- Investigation Asks Why School Personnel Waited So Long To Report Girl's Assault

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Investigation Asks Why School Personnel Waited So Long To Report Girl's Assault
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 8, 2008

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA--Officials are investigating the alleged assault of an 11-year-old girl, and trying to determine why the incident was not reported to authorities -- or the girl's mother -- for at least two and possibly three days.

According to several local news sources, a teacher at William Dandy Middle School told security officers on December 19 that she saw two 13-year-old boys sexually assaulting the girl, who has intellectual and physical disabilities, in a field near the school. The incident, however, was not reported to the school principal, the state child abuse hotline, or police.

The girl's mother said she was only told her daughter had wet herself.

She added that the girl, whose name has not been published, was supposed to have been under one-on-one supervision in a classroom with four teachers.

"That's my baby," she later told reporters. "How could they let something like this happen?"

Two days after the incident, a school resource officer reported overhearing another witness talking about the incident. That was the first time authorities learned about it.

This apparently is not the first time Broward County school personnel have failed to report an assault of children that have disabilities to the proper authorities.

The Miami Herald reported Tuesday that school officials had waited several weeks to report a September incident in which a bus driver allegedly used a pipe to strike two students with disabilities.

"They kept it hush hush," said the parent of another student at Dandy Middle School. "That's no good. That's no good at all."

The victim and the alleged perpetrators in the December 19 incident were all students in the school's special education program. The two boys have since been transferred to another school.

Tuesday morning, Broward County School Superintendent James Notter issued a memo to all principals and teachers, reminding them about the district's policy of reporting all cases of suspected or actual incidents of abuse.

Related:
"Handicapped Student Victim Of Alleged Sexual Assault At Broward Co. School" (WTVJ-TV)
http://www.nbc6.net/news/14998786/detail.html
"School District Reminds Principals Of Abuse Policy" (WFTL-TV)
http://cbs4.com/local/Sex.Assault.Rape.2.625334.html

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