Justice Department sides with 14-year-old girl raped while serving as 'bait' in middle school sting [View all]

[cali]

this story is mind boggling.

The federal government today sided with the guardian of a teenage girl who was raped during a botched sting operation in the boy's bathroom, arguing the Madison County School system was liable under federal law to investigate harassment and protect female students.

"A school board cannot avoid summary judgment as a matter of law when a school administrator willfully ignores a plan to use a 14-year-old special needs student as bait to catch a student with a known history of sexual and violent misconduct, and as a result, the student is sodomized," reads the federal brief filed in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals late today.

The U.S. Department of Justice argues administrators at Sparkman Middle School near Huntsville knew the boy was dangerous and showed "deliberate indifference."

"According to Principal (Ronnie) Blair," reads today's brief, "June Simpson, a teacher's aide, reported that for several weeks, (a 16-year-old boy) had repeatedly been trying to get girls into the boys' bathroom and in fact had sex with a student in the bathroom on the special needs students' corridor."

Blair rejected the aide's recommendation that the boy be constantly watched, "and told Simpson that (the boy) could not be punished because he had not been 'caught in the act,' short-hand for the school's policy that students could not be disciplined without substantiation of student-on-student misconduct."

The brief states the teaching assistant then devised a plan to use the girl as bait.

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http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2014/09/feds_side_with_14-year-old_gir.html

More:

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Blair and the two assistant principals were named in the lawsuit because Simpson had told Dunaway about her plan beforehand.

"Simpson and (the girl) then went to Vice-Principal (Jeanne) Dunaway's office, where Simpson told Dunaway about her plan to use (the girl) as bait to catch (the boy)," the Justice Department brief states. "Dunaway did not respond with any advice or directive.

&quot The girl) left Dunaway's office, found (the boy) in the hallway, and agreed to meet him for sex. (The boy) told (the girl) to go to the sixth grade boys' bathroom and she complied. No teachers were in the bathroom to intervene, and (the boy) sodomized (the girl)."

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The brief also points out that administrators minimized the assault after the fact by listing it as "inappropriate touching" in the boy's file. The federal attorneys note that one assistant principal, upon seeing photos of the injuries, contended that school officials could not know if the sex had been non-consensual.

"Vice-Principal Dunaway testified that (the girl) was responsible for herself once she entered the bathroom," the brief states.

The National Women's Law Center also on Thursday filed a brief supporting the 14-year-old victim, who left the school district after the rape and now lives in another state. In a press release issued today, the law center cited the "outrageous response" by the Madison County Board of Education and school officials.

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http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2014/09/sparkman_middle_rape_case.html