Down syndrome student reportedly raped at school

Classmate suspected in alleged attack

05:57 PM CDT on Friday, May 21, 2004

By Chau Nguyen / 11 News

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Days away from summer vacation, a shocking incident outside a special education class at Texas City High School has prompted an investigation.

KHOU-TV An 18-year-old Texas City High School student with Down's Syndrome was allegedly raped in a school bathroom Wednesday.

Parents say their daughter was assaulted by another student inside a bathroom.

She looks like a child, but she's an 18 year-old woman with Down's Syndrome. Her parents asked that her identity not be revealed because of what they claim happened at her school Wednesday.

"The president come over and told me, said, 'Your daughter has been raped,'" says Tommy Teague, the girl's father. "My heart just fell to the ground right there. I didn't know what to think."

The parents told 11 News their daughter, a special education student, was forced into a bathroom by a 17-year-old male classmate.

"She started crying," says Elizabeth Teague, the girl's mother. "She ran into my arms and started crying. And she was crying and she (told) me, 'It hurts down there, Mama! It hurts!'"

"She's just not a happy child right now," her father says.

The school district will only confirm that a teacher's aide discovered the two students together in the bathroom and that it happened during a class change.

"It's a serious allegation," says Melissa Torocini, a spokesperson for the Texas City ISD. "So we want to make sure that we do a thorough investigation."

The Teagues have hired a lawyer and they're considering suing, saying what happened to their daughter should never happen again.

"When they can have the time and have somebody take and forcibly take and enter one of the bathrooms in that section or that wing of the school without an aide or a teacher knowing that this is happening is inexcusable," says Jack Ewing, an attorney representing the parents.

The mother says she took her daughter to a hospital shortly after the incident for a rape examination. Both the parents and the school district are awaiting the results of that test.

The school district says the boy involved had no record of problems with the school, but the parents believe there may have been other incidents.