FORT BEND COUNTY – A Houston area mother is suing the Fort Bend Independent School District claiming educators failed to protect her daughter from another student.
The lawsuit says the woman’s daughter was sexually assaulted by a fellow student on two separate occasions, even though safeguards were in place to ensure neither student was left unsupervised.
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KPRC 2 Investigates is not identifying the woman since it would reveal her daughter’s identity.
“She is an amazing little girl who was adopted from China, and she had a hard start to life. She was left on the side of the road in China and put into an orphanage,” the mother said.
The mother adopted her daughter when she was six-and-a-half years old. She said her daughter is intellectually disabled and has epilepsy.
When she enrolled her daughter in Fort Bend ISD, she said an Individualized Education Program (IEP) was created. According to the Texas Education Agency, an IEP “is a written document created by the Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) committee for every public school child ages 3-21 receiving special education in Texas.”
The mother said her daughter’s IEP required her to be supervised any time she left the classroom. According to court documents, the boy accused of sexually assaulting her also had an IEP requiring him to be supervised at all times because he has a “history of committing acts of violence against other students.”
“At one point, (he was) quoted as saying that he would like to be a rapist when he grows up,” said the mother’s attorney, Joe Alexander.
The lawsuit says the woman’s daughter and the boy were out of the classroom and unsupervised when the sexual assaults occurred.
Alexander said the school district wants the case dismissed, claiming immunity. But he argues the legal concept known as “state-created danger” is the real issue.
“State-created danger would be an instance where the state affirmatively does something to create the dangerous act or omission that results in an injury or harm to somebody,” said Alexander.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, is one of only two federal appeals courts that does not recognize state-created danger as established law.
“The school’s protected. They’re in a protective bubble. I think that they at least need to go to trial and be held accountable and let somebody else decide if they did something wrong or not,” the mother said.