5th graders face charges for classroom sex
April 4, 2007
Adapted from CBSnews.com
Five fifth-grade students face criminal charges after authorities said four of them had sex in front of other students in an unsupervised classroom and kept a classmate posted as a lookout for teachers.
The students were arrested at a school in rural Louisiana, authorities said. Two 11-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year old boy were charged with obscenity, a felony. An 11-year-old boy, the alleged guard, was charged with being an accessory.
"After 44 years of doing this work, nothing shocks me anymore," said the sheriff. "But this comes pretty close."
Authorities said the incident happened at the school, which houses students from kindergarten through 12th grade. A high school teacher normally watches the fifth-grade class at the time but went to an assembly for older students. The class was inadvertently left unattended, the sheriff said.
The class, which had around 10 other students, was alone for about 15 minutes, he said.
"When no teacher showed up, the four began to have sex in the classroom with the other elementary students in the classroom with them," he said.
It took a day for authorities to find out about the incident. A student who had been in the class told a high school student about it the next day, the sheriff said. The student told a teacher, and school officials notified the sheriff's office. Detectives began questioning students.
The students were released to their parents after their arrests, the sheriff said. They will next be arraigned in juvenile court.
The sheriff said it was unclear what the children could face in penalties.
The parents cannot be charged.
"When the kids are at school, they relinquish all responsibility to the administration. We can't do anything but look into what goes on at home," the sheriff said.
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