BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio – A 15-year-old Ohio student is accused of raping a 6-year-old girl on a school bus last Wednesday, according to the Logan County Sheriff’s Office.
The unnamed juvenile, who worked as a bus helper, now faces charges of rape and gross sexual imposition, according to the Dayton Daily News.
Bus helpers in the Benjamin Logan Local School District are tasked with helping young students navigate the trip between home and school, according to the paper. With routes that can take up to an hour, it’s not uncommon for there to be elementary, middle and high school students on the same bus.
Benjamin Logan Local School District Superintendent David Harmon said the high school sophomore would usually have had to sit at the back of the bus with the older students but, as a helper, he was able to move around, WSYX reports.
The 6-year-old’s parents reportedly contacted the sheriff’s office Thursday morning after speaking with their daughter. Investigators are now working to determine if there were any other victims.
Harmon sent a letter to parents saying the school is “in complete lockstep” with the Logan County Sheriff’s Office and with Logan County Children’s Services as they investigate.
“This incident or potentially multiple incidents reportedly took place on Benjamin Logan School Bus #28,” Harmon wrote in a letter to parents. “I am not at liberty to share the intimate details of what exactly occurred, but I share this with you because trauma of any kind may ‘open the wounds’ of previously existing things for kids.”
Harmon told WSYX the bus driver “is beside herself” and he has “no indicator of any kind of a failure of duty.”
Authorities are holding the boy at the Logan County Juvenile Detention Center.
