HOUSTON – Parents of a Houston Independent School District student said a male student tried to sexually assault their daughter while at school.
The female victim attends Barrick Elementary School in north Houston. Her parents said they are outraged and disturbed by what happened to their 11-year-old daughter on the school’s playground last Friday. They said a fellow fifth-grader and male classmate, who is older and stronger than their daughter, punched their daughter in the stomach during recess before trying to sexually assault her.
“He verbally said, ‘I’m going to rape your blank,’” said the unidentified mother. “Yeah, then he turned her around and proceeded to try to take her clothes off and put her down.”
KPRC 2 is not identifying the parents since their daughter is a victim. The couple said their daughter fought the boy off, but he preceded to attack another girl that was coming to their daughter’s aid.
“She’s a friend of my daughter as well. She was trying to help her when he was attacking her,” said the mother. " So, he grabbed her (the friend) and started taking her clothes off as well. He took her shoes and her socks.”
The couple said the girls were able to run toward a teacher for help.
“There were two teachers that were there from what I was told,” said the father. “Where were they at the time this occurred? I don’t know. They weren’t protecting our children.” he said.
The parents said the incident happened around 1:15 pm, and they weren’t notified by the school about the incident until two hours later. They said they fear HISD is trying to sweep the incident under the rug.
“They told us there were no disciplinary actions that they could discuss with us. That’s private,” said the victim’s mother. “They just said they would handle it, but the way they were handling it, we heard that they are going to separate them in a classroom.”
HISD issued a statement to KPRC 2 saying:
“At HISD, the safety of our students is our top priority. The district is aware of an allegation of misconduct at Barrick Elementary School. Due to the pending investigation, HISD will not be providing additional information at this time.”
The couple said their daughter is scared to return to school out of fear she’ll see her attacker again. The father, who attended the same elementary school when he was younger, said he plans to pull his daughter out of the school, which she attended since kindergarten.
“I think it’s time for a better school district altogether,” he said. “I think a fresh start might give her back her self-esteem, her comfort again.”
They said she has not returned to the school since Friday’s incident.