LISBON FALLS – A settlement has been reached between the Bath School Department and the parents of a 5-year-old girl who said she was sexually harassed by a classmate for months.
The case, expected to be heard by the Maine Human Rights Commission on Monday, was instead settled in recent weeks. Details of the settlement were not disclosed.
The parents of the Huse Kindergarten Center student had charged that school officials did not take strong enough measures to stop the harassment at the start of the 2003 school year.
In September of that year, the girl told her father that a 5-year-old boy had touched and kissed her against her wishes. Later complaints involved the girl being pinched, chased, pushed, spanked and touched “below the belt” by the same boy.
The parents contacted school officials, and action was taken against the boy, according to MHRC documents. However, the girl’s mother and father said those measures were not enough to stop the harassment of their daughter.
“For over two months (school officials were) aware of numerous acts of severe and pervasive sexual harassment being suffered by a completely innocent, 5-year-old girl who was at the mercy of the school to protect her,” according to the documents.
This year, an investigator for the Maine Human Rights Commission has concluded that school officials discriminated against the 5-year-old by not protecting her from her classmate’s constant harassment.
“It definitely turned our world upside down,” the girl’s father said during an earlier interview.
A MHRC investigator said earlier this month that in October 2003, steps were taken in an attempt to protect the girl. The teacher met with the boy’s mother and developed a behavioral plan for him.
But in the weeks that followed, the boy chased the girl, pinched her, told her he loved her and told her that he was going to her house and would touch her privates, according to the MHRC documents.
In November, at the request of the girl’s parents, the school transferred the boy to another classroom. According to the investigator, that wasn’t enough. The two children continued to see each other in the gym and outside. The final straw for the girl’s parents was when the boy blew their daughter a kiss and told her he was going to get her.
“A phrase such as this when put in context with his other statements was not playful, it was threatening,” the investigator wrote.
According to the investigator’s report, school officials believe they took reasonable measures to fix the problem. But if MHRC had agreed with the investigators’ findings at the scheduled hearing on Monday, the girl’s parents could have sued the department with the commission’s backing.
Interim Bath School Superintendent Martha Witham was unavailable for comment Tuesday. The 5-year-old girl’s father did not immediately return telephone messages.
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