FOUR nursery school pupils allegedly sodomised a classmate and recorded the abuse on an iPad after threatening not to be his friend if he resisted.
The parents of the alleged victim have filed a lawsuit against the school in Michigan, US, claiming their son was "sexually assaulted over multiple months by classmates in their teacher-attended classroom."
The boy, named in court papers as "Jimmy Doe", was taken to a "mudroom" where he was abused on multiple occasions between the autumn of 2014 and April 2015, the suit states.
The students used school-issued iPads to take photos of the attacks, directing the boy on how to pose, and took so many photos they had to delete some to make room for new ones, it's alleged.
Jimmy was told if he didn't do what they asked he would have no friends and even be blamed for instigating the abuse, the suit claims.
His parents allegedly went to school officials after growing concerned about his physical and mental health but was told "nothing was amiss".
On April 22, 2015, the principal called the parents to tell them indecent pictures of Jimmy had been found on an iPad – but it was months before the boy told his parents what happened.
A police report states that Jimmy told them he had tried to get away from the boys but they would physically block him and threaten to show other students before blaming the abuse on him, according to 24 Hour News 8.
It also states that the boys denied the incident and no charges were filed because of the age of the children involved and the case was closed in 2016.
Jimmy changed schools but children in his new class had allegedly heard about the incident and would taunt him, it's alleged.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday this week, accuses the school district of gross negligence by failing to protect the boy and not properly investigating the incident.
It also alleges that the school failed to monitor behaviour by checking school-assigned equipment.
School officials said they were unaware of the lawsuit until approached by a local TV network this week.
A statement from the district superintendent said they would not respond while circumstances were ongoing.
The Sun