A lawsuit says staff at a southwest Missouri school district failed to report that two students had sexually assaulted a middle school classmate on a school bus.
The Springfield News-Leader reports that the lawsuit names Willard Public Schools and five employees. It alleges that the district failed to properly supervise students at a December 2016 school event, didn't comply with mandated reporter laws and didn't safeguard the boy when he came forward. The suit says he was bullied and harassed.
The family's attorney, Jay Kirksey, says a hotline call wasn't made to the state's Children's Division until Willard's longtime superintendent retired and a new one was hired to lead the district in mid-2017. But Kirksey said that by then it was "too late" and that the "harm was done."