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District 56 bus assault - gmg77 - 08-31-2010
State opens probe of District 56 after alleged sexual assault by students of 3-year-old
Distraught driver resigns
By Megan Craig, TribLocal reporter
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As police continued to investigate allegations that a 12-year-old boy sexually assaulted a 3-year-old girl on a bus, the state on Monday opened its own investigation of Gurnee School District 56 over the incident.
The Department of Children and Family Services is looking into whether the district was lax in its role as caregiver for the girl, said spokesman Jimmy Whitlow.
The driver, meanwhile, resigned on Monday because he is distraught over the alleged Friday afternoon attack on his bus, which he told authorities he did not know had happened, school officials said.
Police said they have no plans to charge the driver, 71, with any criminal wrongdoing.
âHe felt so horrible about it that he just didnât want to drive anymore,â said District 56 Superintendent John Hutton.
Police said the girl was sexually assaulted by the 12-year-old, who lives in Gurnee, and possibly by another boy, 9, of Waukegan. Authorities say at least portions of the assault were captured by surveillance cameras on the bus, but high seats obscured some of the incident.
The 12-year-old was taken into the custody at about 7:35 p.m. Sunday, and turned over to the Depke Juvenile Justice Center in Vernon Hills, according to Police Commander Jay Patrick.
The 9-year-old was questioned by police. He was not taken into custody, Patrick said.
The bus had picked the hearing-disabled girl up from a Vernon Hills school after classes on Friday, according to Patrick. The two boys were the only other students on the bus, Patrick said.
Although privacy laws prevented officials from saying where girl or the boys attend school, students from District 56 can attend the Special Education District of Lake Countyâs John Powers Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Vernon Hills, according to SEDOLâs web site.
The girlâs mother contacted the districtâs transportation office shortly after the girl got off the bus and complained that some boys on the bus had hurt her, Hutton said. The office contacted him at about 4 p.m. on Friday to view video footage from the bus.
Cameras were installed in the front and back of the bus, he said, but because of the vehicleâs high-backed seats, some portions of the incident canât be seen on video.
âWe could see some things, but we didnât see everything,â Hutton said.
The girl was examined at and released from Lake Forest Hospital on Friday evening, according to Patrick, who would not reveal whether the exam showed evidence of sexual assault because the investigation is ongoing. However, he said, the department does think a sexual assault occurred.
The Lake County Stateâs Attorney Juvenile Division will determine possible charges to be filed in juvenile court, Patrick said. Calls to the stateâs attorney were not returned on Monday.
Hutton said itâs not unusual for pre-kindergarten students to ride the bus with older kids. Illinois State Board of Education spokeswoman Mary Fergus said no law dictates whether or not students of different ages should ride together.
Hutton said that pre-school students usually are bused with kids in kindergarten, first and second grades. But sometimes older children ride with the districtâs youngest students, he said.
âItâs never been a problem before, because most of the time the older kids either donât pay any attention to [the younger kids] ⦠or they try to really be nice to them and help them,â Hutton said. âTheyâre older, so they try to take care of them.â
This alleged assault marks the third case of apparent child-on-child sex abuse in Gurnee this month.
In early August, police said they were investigating an 8-year-old Gurnee boy for allegedly assaulting a four-year-old boy. Less than a week later, the mother of 3-year-old twins reported that her children, a boy and a girl, had been sexually assaulted by a different 8-year-old boy.
Patrick said because the incidents are unrelated and donât involve any of the same children, âItâs just all coincidence, apparently.â
Hutton said he canât recall an incident like this during his four-year tenure in Gurnee, but a similar incident happened in another district where he once worked.
âThis is never pleasant. Itâs terrible,â he said. âI didnât sleep much all weekend. Iâm a dad too, and this stuff just bothers you.â
He said he wants parents in the district to know that âstudent safety is a top priority to us.
âThatâs why we wrote the grant and why we received a federal grant to put cameras on the buses â so kids could be as safe as they could be while on the bus,â he said. âThe cameras are supposed to act as a deterrent, and for those kids that it doesnât deter, then the cameras become a source of evidence against them.â
Whitlow said DCFS could take up to 60 days or more to complete its investigation into the districtâs role in the incident.
Re: District 56 bus assault - Blackdiamond - 09-08-2010
To hell with their ages, I want something bad to happen to them. They knew what they were doing. One of the veins in my head is about to burst. I want to take the law into my own hands, and I'm sorry that I read that article. God help us all.