By Heart of Illinois ABC
FARMER CITY – A local family is suing the Blue Ridge School District, which serves part of McLean County, after they say their child with special needs was sexually abused on a school bus.
The victim in this case is a first grade girl with Down syndrome.
Police and lawyers have security footage from the bus, and attorney Jeff Green believes this has happened more than once.
“The evidence in this case suggests this is an ongoing course of conduct, and that’s based on the police investigation as well as the video security footage we have from the bus,” Green said.
Footage shows a teenage boy touching the young girl inappropriately on several occasions, and the bus aides in charge of watching the students were not in their seats.
Investigators say the bus driver allowed the teenager to take the young student off the bus to his house, without notifying her parents.
“It’s a systemic failure,” Green said. “We know there are days where maybe someone is absent on this crew – maybe the aides aren’t there, maybe the driver isn’t there. But because this didn’t happen on one day, obviously there is failure on everyone on the bus that is involved in driving and monitoring the bus.”
Green says the family is emotionally traumatized and wants answers from the school district.
“I don’t know what role they had – if any – in investigating and assisting,” Green said. “We know they didn’t notify the family of what had occurred, because we know law enforcement had reached out and notified the parents.”
According to Green, he hopes the case shows whether district representatives need more training to recognize an incident like this one.
Green is still waiting for a statement from the district.
Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at [email protected].
