Local

Mom: Special needs daughter was sexually assaulted at school

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A local mother says she plans to take legal action against the Fulton County School District after police say her special needs daughter was sexually assaulted at school.

Channel 2 Action News is not identifying the victim or her mother, because  it is our policy not to identify the victim’s of sexual assault.

“Just a simple walk to the bathroom, resulted in a sexual assault,” said the mother. “How do you as an administrator sit by simply let something like this happen and not tell other parents about what happened?”

According to a police report obtained by Channel 2 Action News, surveillance video caught some of the incident at Langston Hughes High School in Fairburn, which the mother says was so violent, the other student broke her daughter’s glasses. School police arrested the other student and charged him with sexual battery and attempted rape.

“Where is the full investigation? No one has told me anything,” the mother told Channel 2’s Rachel Stockman.

The incident happened at the beginning of the school year, but this mother is coming forward now because she says she’s been trying to get answers from the district about how this happened for months.

“Everybody hunches their shoulders and turns their head the other way, as though it never happened,” the mother said.

Susan Hale, a spokesperson for the district said: “That we are empathetic and we share her concern about the alleged situation. As a school system, we’ve taken appropriate action and it now a judicial matter.”

The mother immediately pulled her daughter out of Langston Hughes High School, and transferred her but a school official confirms the suspect was allowed back at the school. The school official said since the suspect was arrested and not yet convicted, administrators can not remove a student from the school based solely on a charge.