The parents of boy reportedly harassed, assaulted, and sodomized while attending a Grandville, Michigan, elementary school filed a federal lawsuit against the school district this week for not protecting their son.

ABC13 reports that according to the lawsuit filed in Grand Rapids, the boy, named Jimmy in the lawsuit, was traumatized so severely while at Century Park Learning Center from 2014 to 2015, that he once hid in mulch to avoid his alleged abusers. The reported bullies, four male students at the school, are accused of taking Jimmy to a mudroom in the school, where they sodomized him and took photos of his genitals using a school-issued iPad.

“The assailants told Jimmy that if he did not cooperate with them, or if he told about the touching and pictures, they would not be his friends and they would say the sexual activity was Jimmy’s idea,’’ the lawsuit states.

The attacks allegedly occurred numerous times when the students in teacher Hillary Huberts’ Kindegarten class had free time. The four boys reportedly coerced the 5-year-old to pose while exposing his private parts. When storage ran out on the iPad, they deleted photos and took more, the lawsuit states.

“The four boys directed Jimmy as to what and how he was to pose and for how long while the boys used classroom iPads to take photographs.”

The alleged bullies, who also reportedly sodomized Jimmy, then showed the photos to other students, according to the lawsuit, which led to additional harassment and bullying by additional students.

The parents claim that the school failed to protect the little boy and didn’t watch over him properly. The boy’s mother asked for a police report, according to the lawsuit, but Principal Tonia Shoup allegedly told her that the case was closed since the boy willingly allowed the photos to be taken and there was no “no indication of coercion or assault.’’

The lawsuit states that the principal indicated she interviewed all four boys in question, and they all told her that it was the victim’s idea to have the photos taken.

In a follow up meeting, former Grandville Public Schools Superintendent Ron Caniff and Assistant Superintendent Scott Merkel reportedly told the parents that the Jimmy could switch to another district and “stressed that the pictures needed to be viewed in the context of kindergarteners’ normal curiosity and suggested that if the parents insisted on pressing the matter, Jimmy would be the one to be disciplined as he was the only child whose genitals were photographed.’’

Caniff now serves as the Superintendent of the school district and released a statement after learning of the lawsuit.

“At the time I was at Grandville Public Schools, there was never any suspicion, suggestion or complaint expressed about inappropriate physical contact between the students involved in this matter, nor did the investigation indicate any concerns in that regard.”

The story is still developing. Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.

[Feature Photo: Pixabay]