Lawsuit claim: Teen sexually assaulted 5-year-old girl on Aurora school bus

A lawsuit filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri claims a teenage boy repeatedly sexually assaulted a 5-year-old girl on an Aurora R-8 School District bus.

The child's mother filed the lawsuit on behalf of her daughter and is represented by Anna Pace of the Joplin law firm of Johnson, Vorhees and Martucci.

s defendants in the lawsuit, in addition to the school district, are bus driver Phillip Short, the teenager boy and the boy's mother.

The allegations were detailed in the petition:

On or about October 2019, B.M. was a five (5) year old female kindergarten student at Pate Early Childhood Center, a school within the Aurora, Missouri School District. At all times herein concerned, Plaintiff B.M. was entirely under the supervision, control, and care of Aurora R-8 School District and its employees while she was attending school and on the school bus. 

Beginning in October 2019, and through December 2019, while on the bus rides from school to her home, Plaintiff B.M. was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Defendant D.E., an older teenaged male student. 

The acts of sexual assault against Plaintiff B.M. took place on the school buses owned by the Aurora School District, including but not limited to bus number six.

Plaintiff B.M. lacked the capacity and did not have the physical or mental wherewithal to consent to or escape from Defendant D.E.’s advances. Plaintiff B.M. relied entirely on the adults charged with her care to assure that she was safe from sexual assault. 

Repeatedly, Defendant D.E. sought opportunity to sexually assault Plaintiff B.M., employing manipulative tactics of intimidation, bribery, forced vows of secrecy and silence, threat, and other such methods to coerce Plaintiff B.M. into keeping Defendant’s actions silent, despite the enormous harm he was inflicting on Plaintiff B.M. physically, emotionally, and mentally. 

Defendant Aurora R-8 School District owed a duty to Plaintiff B.M. to ensure that she enjoyed a safe educational environment to attend kindergarten, free from harm, and protected against sexual assault and abuse. 

Defendant Phillip Short, as a bus driver and employee of Defendant Aurora R-8 School District, owed a duty to Plaintiff B.M. to safely transport her to and from Pate Early Childhood Center, and to ensure that she was safe and free from harm, including the repeated sexual assaults suffered by her.

The six-count lawsuit alleges Title IX violations by the district, negligence on the part of the bus driver, negligence on the part of the teen's mother, who the petition says should have known her son was a predator, and assault, battery and negligence counts against the teen.