Sexual battery happens in elementary

MARION, Ind. (WISH) - A sexual battery case happened inside of a Marion elementary school.

Marion police say a 7-year-old boy assaulted another second grade boy at Kendall Elementary School inside a bathroom stall.

"You don't expect bad things to happen from people that you know and you certainly don't expect bad things to happen when you're seven from another 7-year-old," says Deputy Chief Cliff Sessoms, of the Marion Police Department.

Marion police say a second grader went to use the bathroom when another second grader followed him inside the bathroom stall during lunch hour. That's when police say the suspect forced the victim into sexual acts.

The Superintendent of Marion Community Schools says he's shocked by what happened.

"It is disturbing that this happened, it's disturbing it happened anywhere in our community let alone in our school," says Superintendent Stephen Edwards.

The superintendent says school officials learned what happened because a witness who walked in the bathroom at the time, got into a fight with the suspect, and then went to a teacher.

During the investigation police learned the 7-year-old suspect was imitating what he saw online.

"They need to know what their kids are doing especially on the computer system - they need to be monitoring that," says Deputy Chief Sessoms. "The computer should be in a central location. Put a password on it, something that prevents them from getting online at will."

Superintendent Edwards stresses that school is still a safe place to be, but as times change, he believes schools will start having to address younger children about being the perpetrators.

"We don't ever think of 7-year-old second graders, young students doing these things. That is shocking. We have a society problem," explains Superintendent Edwards.

Superintendent Edwards says, both students are taking part in counseling. Edwards says it's undetermined whether or not he will return to Kendall Elementary.

The Grant County Prosecutor's Office is still deciding whether or not to file charges.