Couple sues South Bend schools over daughter's sex abuse on bus

SOUTH BEND — In a lawsuit against the South Bend Community School Corp. and a district bus driver, a couple claimed their 6-year-old daughter was sexually abused by another child and that the district and driver failed to prevent the abuse.

According to the lawsuit filed last week in St. Joseph Superior Court, a boy repeatedly sexually assaulted and abused the girl, then 6, aboard a bus they rode to a South Bend primary school. The girl first told her parents and school officials March 17, 2014, about the alleged abuse.

When the abuse occurred, the girl told her parents that the driver was either reading a book or using his cell phone. For about 15 minutes each day, after the driver parked the bus and before children were allowed to enter the school, he was the only adult supervision on the bus, according to the suit. It's unclear if other adults helped to monitor the children at any other time.

"The sexual assaults and abuse...occurred on multiple occasions because the South Bend Community School Corp. And its employee and agent ... failed to properly supervise and monitor the children," the couple alleged in the lawsuit.

The couple is anonymous in the lawsuit, and the girl is identified only by her initials. The suit does not identify the boy who allegedly abused the girl. The boy was about the same age as the girl, said attorney Bradley P. Colborn, who is representing the girl's family in the suit.

It's unclear how long the alleged abuse went on before the girl told her parents. After the parents told school officials about the complaints, the school officials reported the alleged abuse to law enforcement, and an investigation verified the girl's complaints, Colborn said.

The girl's family is seeking an unspecified amount of money as compensation for her alleged injuries, pain, suffering, emotional distress, psychological trauma, future harm and court costs, along with any other award decided by a jury.

The Tribune contacted a district spokeswoman for comment but had not received a response late Tuesday afternoon. Court records did not list an attorney for the driver, and it was not clear if he was still employed by the district.