Mother claims her special needs daughter was assaulted on school field trip

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- RALEIGH (WTVD) -- The mother of a Wake County middle school student believes her special needs daughter was not only bullied, but sexually assaulted on a field trip.

She claims officials at Durant Road Middle ignored her pleas for help, but then reprimanded students involved and didn't tell her.

Right now, the only people talking about the allegations are the girl's family.

Raleigh police will only confirm they are investigating inappropriate activities with a 14-year-old student. However, if they find evidence it is true, it will only raise many more questions.

According to the woman we are only calling "Vanessa," it all started at the north Raleigh school 18 months ago. She doesn't want to reveal her identity, but she says her daughter has a form of autism.

"I know when things are not right with her," said Vanessa.

She says her daughter was acting strange one day after returning home from school in late 2012. Then, the young teen began spouting out names her parents had never heard. They suspected bullying and went to the school and repeatedly asked if something had happened there, which the school denied.

She says eventually the school called social services on her and her husband, but the agency cleared the family.

"It was very upsetting," said Vanessa. "It was, I felt ashamed, embarrassed."

She says social services investigators realized the family had been working hard with doctors and therapists to try to figure out what was wrong with their daughter.

The girl was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Her mother thinks she knows why.

A year ago, Durant Road Middle School sponsored a field trip to the I-Max theatre. Afterward, the girl claimed she'd been sexually assaulted.

"Our daughter was stating that someone touched her in a movie theatre, and she was stating that all the kids were laughing at her," said Vanessa.

Then, earlier this month, the mother says she had a chance encounter with one of her daughter's classmates and that child's mother. She says the girl not only admitted she was one of the bullies, but apologized.

Then, the girl's mother, with tears in her eyes, said something that shocked Vanessa.

"That all of the kids was punished for bullying my daughter," she said.

Vanessa says that just added insult to injury since she says the school never told her that she and her special needs daughter were right all along.

The mother says the classmate who admitted bullying also admitted posting a picture of her daughter online. It's a picture the mother hasn't seen.

Late Thursday afternoon, Wake County Schools sent ABC11 this statement: "Due to student privacy laws, WCPSS is unable to comment on this specific case. We can say that the school had no reports of inappropriate touching, photographing, posting of photos, or other types of inappropriate physical activity during this time period."