It is a traumatic situation, no matter how old you are. A second-grader was allegedly assaulted in a bathroom at Kendall Elementary School in Marion.
There are often two sides to every story, this one is no different. There are parents who say the school did too much, and others who say the school did not do enough.
"What he did to my son is not okay," said the victim's mother. "It is not fair for my son to have to deal with what he has to deal with now. He is 7."
The mother of a second grader said her son was raped inside a bathroom stall at Kendall Elementary.
"Devastated that something like that could happen to my child at a place where he is supposed to feel safe," said the victim's mother.
It only stopped because a third-grader walked in, saw what was going on, and helped break it up.
"It just makes you sick," said the mother of the boy who helped break up the incident.
Both parents said they did not find out what happened until well after the fact.
"A week later," said one of the mothers. "Not the day that it happened, I was notified by the police department a week later that my child was involved in an incident."
Neither boy wanted to go back to school. Parents said they should have known sooner, the school says it took appropriate action.
"Obviously it is very important that we protect the identities of students, for several reasons," said Marion Community School Superintendent Stephen Edwards. "We know there are individuals out there who are talking and accusing us of covering it up, that has not happened."
"Something did happen, but it is being made out to be more than what it was," said Nikki Noffsinger.
Nikki Noffsinger's says her son has been expelled from school. She said her son was playing games on the internet, when a few curious clicks took him to a site he should not have been on. She said her son was simply acting out what he saw.
"I understand the school needs to take this very seriously," said Noffsinger. "They have to make sure that other children are protected as well, but he is 7-years-old. Come on, he is being treated like a pedophile and he is not."
Noffsinger said the whole thing has been blown out of proportion.
"I believe that there may have been something inappropriate with the two boys, but the school alleges that it was some kind of prison rape scene," said Noffsinger.
The parents of the other two boys said every day is a lesson in damage control.
"These days, it does not matter how old they are, things happen all the time," said one of the mothers. "Age does not matter anymore."
"I would never want another parent to go through anything like we have had to go through with our kids," said the victim's mother. "It is terrible."
All three boys: the alleged victim, the alleged perpetrator, and the boy who saw it happening are all undergoing counseling.
