This is just my 2 cents, but I think we are missing something here that is screaming to me. If this had been done to a teenager or adult, it would constitute attempted rape. I know this for a fact due to family experience. The fact that this poor child's tights were torn and she had bruising would have been enough to charge Vlad with attempted rape if he were old enough to charge. Regardless of age, this little girl is experiencing physical and psychological effects of being a victim of attempted rape. In this case, being a victim is not the fault of the little girl!!! But denying the fact the she was a victim isn't helping her AT ALL. She is being let down by her teacher who didn't see anything and stupidly put her in the position of being hurt again by letting her walk unaccompanied with her attacker. She is being let down by her mom who is blogging instead of being the kind of mom she should be and helping her daughter heal. And she is being let down by dad who isn't stepping up to the plate and saying, "Not my daughter or anyone else's ever again!" No one is paying attention to the fact that this little girl has suffered the entire school year from psychological symptoms of a sexual assault. It doesn't matter that she is completely innocent, for her mental health's sake she needed out of that situation one way or another. And she needs counseling now.
Marty, I completely agree with you. This is why I'm angry with the parents as well. I don't mind that she is spending time blogging about it, because it is helping stir the hornet's nest is this mess, but I see it falling apart at the point when she and her husband allowed Gabby to go back into that classroom with a "promise" that Gabby and Vlad would never have any contact. That is completely unreasonable and unfeasible in a kindergarten classroom and should've never been accepted as such. I know what my dad would've done and what most fathers/men I know would've done to protect the little girls in their lives and I cannot fathom that this father hasn't done more or at the least refused allowing his little girl anywhere near Vlad ever ever again. I feel terrible for Vlad, because there is something so terribly wrong in this little boy's life that he even borders on these types of actions, but that doesn't mean Gabby should be suffering in the way she is, either. Her parents do have the power and right to help her heal. You are right, Marty, her emotional and physical manifestations are screaming sexual assault victim. Because, bottom line, that is what happened to her and it is inexcusable to use her as a martyr by leaving her in the situation just to hold the public school's feet to the fire.
Looks like Gabby will be homeschooled. At least through the end of this school year, as they have pulled her from the elementary school. http://www.iambarkingmad.com/spotte...12/05/gut-check-this-changes-everything-.html
That's great news. Hopefully it goes so well for them that they keep her home until either her family or the boys family naturally move out of the area.
But that doesn't solve anything!!! First of all, I DO BELIEVE they needed to pull her at this time. ABSOLUTELY!!! I doubt I would have kept her in this long myself, but that's beside the point. HOWEVER, this girl HAS THE RIGHT TO ATTEND A PUBLIC SCHOOL, and the school personel HAS THE RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP HER RELATIVELY SAFE THERE. They have failed in their responsibility, not only to her, but to the other students and to the boy. Neither the boy nor the school is being held accountable. And to me, that is totally NOT acceptable. I really believes she needs to sue the school. Both dh and I feel that's the ONLY language the school understands. Now that she's gone (and, as I said before, I DO feel they're right in pulling her!), the school can just pretty much pretend the situation never happened.
Totally agree, Jackie (and Marty and Kelly!!) Now that the parents have pulled her out, the school will be totally unaccountable for the whole situation.
I can't believe I read it all and my computer is still in tact!!! Vlad is sure lucky I'm not Gaby's mother....he'd not be breathing right now, and I'd be in jail! Serial killer in the making. Hoping someone intervenes soon. Praying for poor Gaby & her family, how unbelievably awful it is for her!!! We do live in a messed up world. Come, Lord Jesus, Come!
I was talking to DH about this and his first question was "where were the police in all this?" It was a sexual assault - and who is to say this hasn't happened before with another girl in the neighborhood or something like that? My husband's point was that the 10-30 minutes of embarrassment/uncomfortable moments could have relieved a lot of the extra months of stress on the girl and counselling could have started. He also agreed with me when I said my child would never step foot in that school again - period. It was kinda interesting hearing how irritated DH was with this and I only gave him the basics of the article.
FYI, I heard something totally unrelated to this incident the other day. Had to do with not charging children under the age of ten....
I'm not able to see the pages you've linked to with this story. I'd be really interested to read what happened. Did the blog owner remove her posts?
I tried and can't bring it up either. I typed the address along with Vlad and Gabby into my search engine and google brings up a few links but they will not open when I click on them.
This thread was started back in May. I'm guessing that the link removes its stories after a certain amount of time.
Do you think maybe she figured out how culpable it made her seem herself, for not removing the child from school immediately, or for not realizing how serious it really is, or for not pursuing counseling for her little girl sooner, or .... whatever. I thought she was incredibly closed to what had actually happened, from what I remember of it, like she didn't want HER world rocked.
Completely agree with all of that and yes I think that her attorney advised her to remove the posts. She did so reluctantly if I recall correctly.
That's where my money is, too. I remember being a little bit outraged at the mother's attitude toward the whole thing. She seemed outraged herself, yet she didn't want to take the extreme steps that she needed to make. Or at least didn't take the steps quickly enough. Despite all her apparent bravado, she let the school walk on her. I would've yanked my daughter out of that wretched place so fast, her hair would've been flying as we ran down the hallways.
At the bottom of this post, she wrote: I think most of my readers know why Gaby didn't graduate with her Kindergarten class at school, but for those that don't, the condensed version is that there was an ongoing situation at her public school that created a hostile environment for Gaby and we felt it best to remove her from school, for her own safety. She was homeschooled for the last 7 weeks of the school year. Because we took her out of school, she was not able to to participate in the graduation ceremony with her classmates that she'd been looking forward to. Earlier I had written extensively and unfortunately, rather graphically about what happened. I removed those posts temporarily on the advice of those involved in helping us move past this. Given time and resolution, I may republish those posts if I can do so while editing out certain details yet leaving the posts with the integrity of what happened, fully intact. In the interim, we're surrounded by people who are helping all of us, but especially Gaby, come out the other side, happy, healthy, and whole!