A lawsuit against Verona Public Schools was filed last week by the mother of an elementary school student alleging that a male student sexually assaulted her daughter over 20 times, NJ.com reports.
The suit alleges that from October 2021 to January 2023, when the victim was 6 and 7 years old in the first and second grades at F.N. Brown Elementary School, a male classmate would allegedly crawl under her bathroom stall and molest her, NJ. com reports.
The suit alleges that the girl was sexually abused in over 20 separate incidents by the same student, NJ 101.5 reports.
According to the lawsuit, the girl’s second-grade teacher found a note she had written on Jan. 20, 2023, saying the boy was “bad,” the outlet reported. Although the girl explained upon further questioning that the boy allegedly did “bad things” and touched her “down there,” the teacher allegedly forced the girl to apologize to the male student and never reported the incident, the outlet states.
The suit claims that the girl was forced to continue sitting next to the boy in class, according to NJ 101.5.
The girl was taken to the doctor after her mother discovered genital abrasions and “raw, rubbed bleeding skin,” but the girl refused the doctor’s examination, Honk News reports. A nurse suggested the girl had had an “absence seizure” and that her “stress and trauma response had inflamed her faculties to a troubling degree,” the outlet states. The girl was hospitalized for over a week, according to the outlet.
Girl sexually assaulted 20+ times in N.J. elementary school bathroom, lawsuit says https://t.co/9gXD8LS9Ed
— njdotcom (@njdotcom) April 29, 2024
“The Verona Board of Education has and continues investigating the allegations outlined in the complaint,” Verona Schools Superintendent Diane DiGiuseppe stated Monday, NJ.com reported. “As this matter is in active litigation, we cannot further comment.” (RELATED: School District To Pay Out $52 Million For Allegedly Ignoring Complaints Ahead Of Teacher Molesting Kids)
The lawsuit alleges that the girl shows “clear signs of sexual trauma,” and “humiliation, stress, anxiety, emotional anguish and dysfunction,” according to NJ.com.
The girl has since been placed in a private school, the outlet reports.
The Verona Board of Education, P.A. Anthony Lanzo, Superintendent Diane DiGiuseppe and teacher Maria Graziano are all being sued, Honk News reports. The suit alleges that the school officials “deliberately indifferent, reckless, negligent and/or tacitly approved” of the situation, NJ.com stated.