Outrage over Oz school calling 7-year-old girl’s sexual assault ''childhood experiment''
Melbourne, Sept 12: The principal of a Queensland school, where a 7-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a classmate, has dismissed the attack, saying that it was a "childhood experiment.”
According to the Courier-Mail, the principal has claimed that the girl was at fault by not immediately contacting her parents or police.
Now, the girls’ parents have slammed the school saying that the authorities still made their daughter to feel she was wrong and ordered back to the classroom where the attack took place - with her seven-year-old assailant sitting just three rows behind her.
The case came out in open when another boy told teachers that he had seen the girl performing oral sex on the boy in the Year 2 classroom at lunchtime. He also said that it was the boy who had threatened the girl with violence.
"It''s disgusting how the school has behaved. They did everything wrong," News. com. au quoted the victim''s grandmother, as saying.
In fact, the girl’s troubled parents have said that the State Education Department and the Department of Child Safety had washed their hands of the case and that a letter of complaint to Premier Anna Bligh went unanswered.
The victim’s 30-year-old mother said that the principal did not phone her until hours after her daughter was abused.
"She said, ''don''t worry, it''s normal childhood behaviour''. I couldn''t believe her and collapsed on the floor. She was so insensitive. My world had the bottom ripped out of it and she was telling me it was normal behaviour. Can you believe that?” said the mother.
She added: "How the hell could this happen? The children were unsupervised and an empty room was left unlocked – both breaches of Education Department rules. The school attempted to sweep it under the carpet at every opportunity. The police were never contacted. The whole thing is disgusting.
"They expected our daughter to return to the class with the boy present. They said they would keep an eye on things and there would be ''low risk'' he would re-offend.” (ANI)