Parents Sue Over Sexual Assault They Claim Their Child Was Abused By a Fellow Disabled Classmate.

By JOE JOHNSON

ATHENS, Ga. -The parents of a middle school student claim in a lawsuit against the Clarke County School District that school administrators failed to protect their mentally disabled son from a classmate who sexually assaulted him.

The suit, filed Friday in Clarke County Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages for a number of claims, including that the school district failed to provide a safe environment for their son and didn’t notify them that their son had been assaulted.

The student, identified only as “A.B.” in the lawsuit, was assaulted by a profoundly mentally disabled classmate in May 2005 at Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School, according to the suit.

The other student was removed from A.B.’s class – not by the school district, but by his family, who took him out of the county, according to Jonathan Zimring, an attorney from Decatur who represents A.B. and his parents. The parents also are identified only by their initials in the complaint.

The parents decided to sue after they learned in October that the other student – identified in the lawsuit as “S-1″ – had returned to the county and was in A.B.’s class at Clarke Central Middle School, Zimring said.

“The family found out that there were some concerns with A.B.’s behavior in class, and it was during a parent-teacher conference that Mrs. B learned they were back in the same class together,” Zimring said.

“There is no justifiable basis for putting an abuser back with an abused person,” he said. “This is a serious breach of protection for all children, especially those with disabilities.”

Clarke County interim Schools Superintendent James Simms was unavailable for comment, and the school district’s attorney, Terrell Benton, did not return a call seeking comment.

Harold Eddy, the attorney who represents the school district in the lawsuit, did not return a call to his Decatur office.

The lawsuit asserts the school district failed to meet its obligations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004.

A.B., who also is severely mentally disabled, can’t speak, according to Zimring.

“It’s not like A.B. can come home and tell his parents what happened at school,” he said. “Parents rely on the school for that.”

Zimring believes A.B. and the other student were in the same class for at least a month last fall before his parents found out.

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