Feds oversee Pa. school district after boy's assault

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Allentown schools have signed a federal oversight plan after a judge called their response to alleged assaults in the boys’ bathroom “wholly inadequate.”

Today’s consent decree comes after the district this month settled a lawsuit with four families for $825,000.

Their lawsuit says the school failed to keep their first- and second-graders safe at Central Elementary School in 2003-2004.

U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond said a jury could find the school was “deliberately indifferent,” given reports a 12-year-old student was threatening and groping boys.

District lawyer John Freund says the district wasn’t required to call police until the final incident, a sexual assault.

Plaintiffs’ lawyer James Pfeiffer says the school should have called sooner to help victims — and the perpetrator.

He remains in juvenile custody after being found responsible for the sexual assault.