Suit: Special-ed student raped in school by known sex predator
LAKEWOOD, Wash. -- The mother of a developmentally-challenged student says her son fell easy prey to a sexual assault by another student.
She is now suing the Clover Park School District over an incident that reportedly occurred at Hudtloff Middle School last year.
"What happened to my son is he was raped," said Teresa Daniel, adding her son was raped by a fellow special-needs student in the boys' bathroom.
Daniel's suit claims the district knew the alleged attacker had a history of sexual assaults at a Boys and Girls Club, and at Lochburn Middle School where he attended before being transferred to Hudtloff.
"I know he hurt a little girl, probably at Lochburn before he switched to Hudtloff," she said.
But Ron Mutchko, a special education teacher at Hudtloff, said the staff was never told of the student's past.
"We weren't, and we feel like we're being scapegoats right now with the district, because they're trying to cover their own tail," he said.
The lawsuit claims the boy in question should have had one-to-one supervision, and not left alone in the bathroom with other boys.
"It wasn't one-on-one for this individual. If we were told that he was a sexual predator, we definitely would have had a one-on-one," Mutchko said.
Daniel wants change.
"You can't have those children mixed in," she said. "When you send your child to school, you expect that they're going to be safe."
The school district says it can't comment on pending legal action.
"But I can tell you that the safety of our students along with our staff is a top priority in Clover Park School District," said district spokesperson Kim Prentice.
The boy in question was immediately expelled. As for Daniel's son, he has moved onto high school where she says he feels protected.
The case is slated to go to trial next March.
She is now suing the Clover Park School District over an incident that reportedly occurred at Hudtloff Middle School last year.
"What happened to my son is he was raped," said Teresa Daniel, adding her son was raped by a fellow special-needs student in the boys' bathroom.
Daniel's suit claims the district knew the alleged attacker had a history of sexual assaults at a Boys and Girls Club, and at Lochburn Middle School where he attended before being transferred to Hudtloff.
"I know he hurt a little girl, probably at Lochburn before he switched to Hudtloff," she said.
But Ron Mutchko, a special education teacher at Hudtloff, said the staff was never told of the student's past.
"We weren't, and we feel like we're being scapegoats right now with the district, because they're trying to cover their own tail," he said.
The lawsuit claims the boy in question should have had one-to-one supervision, and not left alone in the bathroom with other boys.
"It wasn't one-on-one for this individual. If we were told that he was a sexual predator, we definitely would have had a one-on-one," Mutchko said.
Daniel wants change.
"You can't have those children mixed in," she said. "When you send your child to school, you expect that they're going to be safe."
The school district says it can't comment on pending legal action.
"But I can tell you that the safety of our students along with our staff is a top priority in Clover Park School District," said district spokesperson Kim Prentice.
The boy in question was immediately expelled. As for Daniel's son, he has moved onto high school where she says he feels protected.
The case is slated to go to trial next March.
Who the heck writes this articles? This is only the second article I read today and they both have typos and are poorly written. What do you mean the "Colver Park School District", it's CLOVER you ding dongs! Should we give them thumbs up for writing it correctly at another part of the article? C'm on KOMO. Who are you hiring now days to write this junk?
 @anchoredown Commenting on the grammar of articles doesn't do any good with KOMO. They keep winning awards for journalism and looking pristine. When we bring up grammatical errors for an organization that is supposed to be giving the English language their paramount attention, we're called grammar Nazis. These people get paid to do this for a living. It's a sorry representation of a vocation when you have to correct people who get a salary to write. We as commentators don't have to adhere to the laws of English, but we tend to do it better than the simpleton displays we read daily. When you correct them, they just look more simplistic. Who does the hiring for these English based articles? That's who should be relieved of a job.
speaking of hiring at KOMO check out this article:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/jeff-burnside-lands-at-seattles-komo_b65525
@randbo -I had no idea of the hire but it does not surprise me ... this is exactly the kind of station KOMO is. They care little about the truth in reporting and only about advancing their agenda. James Clayton is the general manager of KOMO and has established himself as one who prefers tabloid â journalismââ¦.
"All right, kid.  You molested another student. You're in big trouble, buster!
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"What are you going to do to me?"
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"We're going to transfer you to another school. So behave your self from now on ."
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"Yeah, sure. You betcha."
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"Our work is done!"
Your children, regardless of age, are not safe in any academic environment and both parents and students need to be a lot more demanding of their civil rights in the academic world. This is, sadly, no surprise whatsoever. And activists, who have bullied legislators to allow sex offenders into schools as students, have only increased the risk and the public needs to do some hard pushing back against them for the safety of kids.Â
A Nation
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Victims.
Welcome to Lakewood.
I agree, that kid never should have been permitted to attend. If they cross the line and become sexual predators, multiple times, the schools should have the permission and abillity to refuse the students who have proven they are a legitimate threat.
 @what? i can only shack my head at that thought, people have eyes that need to be used in our schools. he should never have been PERMITTED ? what a joke. tell that to the kid, it will make everything all better.
i forgot bulling. and whats it matter if it was a unknown or known sex predator? what? some ones not doing their job? cant put a blame on no one but the school period. and the teachers are in CLASS doing their job. no one is outside watching the grounds or restrooms, never has been.could that be the problem?
what will it take to hire more staff to watch these kids? baby sit ,some would call it . rape ,shootings, molesting. aint working. this is gross and not normal. no i wont except it as normal never and stop trying to convince me of that.
If the district knew and didn't inform the school and are now trying to scapegoat the teachers there then that in itself is pretty outrageous. Â
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How disgusting would it be to try to get these teachers fired for the incompetence of others in the school administration. Â
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This needs to be investigated thoroughly. Â
  @Andrew Bush Legally, it is very difficult to require notification of sexual offenders who are school age, and do attend schools. Courts order the defendent to attend school, regardless of the offemse, and also require schools not to inform other students parents that there is a sexual offender enrolled in the school. KIRO did an investigation a couple years ago and they discovered that the law forbids notification of juvenile offenders in such environments,
@cclngthr @Andrew Bush You are right about the notification process, although why they insist on protecting the juvenile offenders, just because of their age, is beyond me. They cause serious damage to others.
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What bothers me is a simple telephone call, quietly, principal to principal, could have stopped this. My daughter is a teacher. She is always informed via the student's previous teacher or the principal of her school of behavior that could be a danger to other children.Â
@Gottadance Not always. I also am a dual certified teacher and I have had students in my class who were offenders and I was not informed of such crime. The principal and main district knows, but they don't inform staff about it.
 @Andrew Bush Gotta agree with you. This is an outrage.
This is a horrible story! I feel special needs students should not be going anywhere by themselves, even to the bathroom, they should be supervised at all times, because some special needs kids have a tendency to be very violent, so I feel they should be supervised at all times. So very sad! Think it is wrong that the staff was not informed of his past! Hope the child recovers without any permanent damage to his mental well being.Â
Epic failure on the part of those in charge.
They both are/were special needs students.
Another important question: Why are special needs students attending schools with those who are not special needs? I understand there should be a certain mix, but come on. If we can make one facility that suits their needs better then 100 facilities that don't why don't we?
@Jalharad
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Federal law requires society to integrate disabled students into mainstream society (rather than institutionalizing them as you seem to prefer)_. IDEA, ADA, Section 504 of the Rehab Act, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and numerous US Supreme Court cases rule we have to integrate everyone because the disabled must do the exact same thing as other people as adults.
@cclngthr  Then the parents should sue the Federal Governement because they created the environment for this to happen.
@Teresa Ann Daniel ,
The issue is, which courts also demand (I know this because I am a teacher) is the offender MUST attend school as a condition of parole/release. I worked at a juvenile detention center which the district I work for manages the classes there, and I remember being required by the courts to make sure the records for the student offender goes to the regular school.
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However, juvenile sex offenders are not legally on a public registry, and notification to parents is not done. KIRO did an investigation a few years ago about juvenile sex offenders  http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/public-schools-mainstream-registered-sex-offenders/nDPSz/
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That report (check out the link) does state the state only has to notify the principal, and not the community at large because of the laws we have.
stilldancing, mom. This child groomed other children. Most of whom could not talk. He has a record a mile long. my son has Aspergers and it is very difficult for him to make friends. I also was there a lot volunteering. The principle blamed it on the teacher. But the principle knew just about everything on his history. Because when my son came home and told me what happened I went directly to the school and asked if she knew this child and she did. And it's not about being disabled or not, it's not about what are we going to do or for that predator. It's what are we going to do to make our own children safe? And where can we put known predator? They need a chance to get well to. But my son can't even start to get better and heal unless he is around a positive classroom and home. If you would like to reply, if it is sarcastic and hateful, it means nothing to me. If you are somebody who has a good idea or wants to vent let me know.
@scared_citizen Are you suggesting we MUST segregate disabled kids?
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When I was a kid, schools did do this, and even before I was around, disabled kids were refused an education.
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The problem is the schools are mandated by law to integrate disabled students, but refuse to do that because they feel disabled people should not be educated.
 @Jalharad Most of these students are one-on-one with teachers or volunteers or para-educators. They are typically segregated unless they can show they're able to function in a mainstream for limited educational exposure. This is common knowledge and easily accessible information. Parents and other guardians should already know this as they're usually wanting to know about their kids' educational environment. Schools usually disseminate critical information among the staff so they're aware of potential threats or need to know things like allergies or meds needed, etc. This looks like a failure of communication that will most likely come back to bite the taxpayer when they win their lawsuit for responsible policy flaws within this school.
 @Jalharad Because segregation is a bad thing. Separate but equal does not work.
nope - can't warn anyone about sex offenders/preditors, its too mean.
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this has to change - why put all these innocent kids at risk?