A Georgia mother has filed a federal lawsuit involving the children who shared a bus with her disabled daughter. The middle-school child with special needs is the victim of the claim, alleging that others on the school bus sexually assaulted and raped her while the present bus driver failed to take any action.
These abuses allegedly happened almost daily between April 4th and April 20th of 2019. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020 with the Northern District of Georgia, she is taking action against the Fulton County School District. The victim, recognized as a “Jane Doe,” is 14-years-old, was 13 at the time of the abuse, and had multiple disabilities. She has physical and mental disabilities, which were present at birth, and additionally, it’s a challenge for her to communicate and interact with others, particularly her peers.
The lawsuit claims that on the first day, another special-needs student moved from his seat to an open space near the victim and began sexually assaulting her by groping. This continued with multiple students on the bus until the actions escalated to rape. The alleged negligence of the bus driver cites that the bus driver had a wide-safety mirror in addition to both video and audio surveillance for the student’s safety. The bus is smaller than standard with only four rows of seats that the driver in no way did not know what was happening and chose to turn a blind eye.
Only when it came to rape did the bus driver report anything out of the ordinary. The victim was taken to a medical facility after the assault, and a physician confirmed that there was evidence of rape and trauma. The victim now lives with emotional distress in addition to her neurological disabilities, which already led the victim to behave below her age.
