Grade School Boys Rape Girl, 10, in School Bathroom

Elementary school boys rape a 10-year-old at a Lauderhill school, police say, and their schoolmates are frightened.

Feb. 6, 2004
By Ashley Fantz And Kevin Deutsch, Lauderhill, FL

A cluttered maze of portable classrooms at Lauderhill's Royal Palm Elementary School hid two boys who followed a 10-year-old girl into a bathroom and raped her.

By midday Wednesday, while their schoolmates were in class, the fourth-graders -- ages 11 and 12 -- were giving a detailed confession to Broward sheriff's detectives. They were charged with sexual battery on a juvenile and lewd or lascivious exhibition, both felonies.

On Thursday, the boys, whose identities are protected under state law, appeared in court wearing jail uniforms and shackles.

A judge ordered them held for at least 21 days in the Broward County Juvenile Intervention Facility.

The rape is the second brutal crime committed this week in South Florida public schools. On Tuesday, a 14-year-old was stabbed to death by a classmate in the restroom of a Miami-Dade middle school.

Kimber Crossfield, 11, said she looked out her classroom window Wednesday and saw the young victim, crying hysterically and barely able to walk.

''She was shaking so bad,'' Kimber said. ``I feel scared; I don't think I can go alone to the bathroom here anymore.''

After the attack, the victim told a friend, who told a teacher. The child was examined at a rape treatment center, which confirmed that she had been assaulted.

Twelve-year-old Nadine Augustine, who lives near the school, doesn't want the boys to come back to Royal Palm.

''Nobody feels safe now,'' she said.

The victim told investigators that the boys had been harassing her for months.

Unsure how to explain the assault to their preteens, Lauderhill parents expressed frustration, then anger.

''What happened here makes me sick,'' said Rudy Mcelroy, 34, as she walked her 10-year-old home. ``I want my daughter out of here. She doesn't deserve to be scared of going to school.''

MENTAL EVALUATION

It's unlikely the boys would return to Royal Palm, 1951 NW 56th Ave., said Joe Melita, the school district's chief investigator.

The boys were automatically suspended for 10 days, he said. They will undergo a mental health evaluation by a district psychologist.

Royal Palm's principal would not talk about the assault Thursday.

According to a source in the Broward Public Defender's Office, the parents of one of the accused boys have consulted a local therapist who deals with child-on-child sexual offenders.

The question that was on parents' minds Thursday was how could such young boys even think about performing such violent sexual acts?

''There are never quick or easy solutions to determining why this happened,'' said Eric Imhof, a therapist who treats child sexual predators and works often in the Broward juvenile courts. ``For perpetrators this young -- considering their knowledge of sexual activity -- there's all sorts of possibilities, including sexual abuse in the home.''

He was quick to dispel the usual complaints that young people exposed to sexualized video games, Internet porn, and other such media are more likely to become sex offenders.

''If it were that simple we could take all those things away from kids,'' Imhof said.

One of the boys has a private attorney and one will likely be represented by a public defender, said Mindy Solomon, who oversees the county public defender's juvenile system.

TAPED CONFESSION

Solomon has handled numerous crimes involving teens but can recall none as young as the boys at Royal Palm.

Because the boys gave a taped, sworn confession to investigators without attorneys present, their attorneys will try to gauge whether the preteens understood the consequences of waiving their Miranda rights to counsel.

''Competency is going to be a major issue here,'' Solomon said.

''I have a 12-year-old in the 7th grade,'' she said. ''So, a 12-year-old in the fourth grade? That just screams at you'' that he might not be intellectually capable of comprehending his actions.

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