Attorneys Laura Swafford and Stephen Wagner of Wagner Reese, LLP represent the family of a 7-year-old non-verbal special needs child who was repeatedly sexually assaulted in March and April of 2025 by an older student while being transported on a special needs school bus operated by the Jennings County School Corporation. Last night, a Jennings County jury returned a guilty verdict against the assailant on multiple felony counts arising from the assaults which took place on April 16, 2025.
While the criminal verdict brings accountability to the assailant, it does not address how these brutal assaults were allowed to occur repeatedly—not just on April 16, 2025, but on at least thirteen prior occasions—while the child was entrusted to the care of the school and its employees.
Today, Wagner Reese filed a civil lawsuit against the Jennings County School Corporation, as well as the bus driver and bus monitor responsible for supervising the children on the bus. The lawsuit alleges that these preventable and horrific acts occurred as a result of a complete failure to properly supervise and protect a vulnerable, non-verbal child who depended entirely on the adults charged with his care.
Through the civil justice system, we intend to fight not only for justice for our client and his family, but also to ensure meaningful changes are made to protect vulnerable children in school transportation settings. Our firm has long stood alongside Indiana families when institutions fail to protect children, and our commitment to victims of sexual abuse drives every decision we make in this case.
According to RAINN, every nine minutes in the United States, a child is sexually assaulted. Non-verbal children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable, depending entirely on the adults around them to keep them safe. When school systems fail to protect Indiana children in their care, families deserve legal recourse, and they deserve a firm that will fight with everything it has. That is what we intend to do!
You can find the downloadable version of the press release issued by Wagner Reese here.
