15-year-old ‘bus helper’ charged with raping 6-year-old girl on school bus in Ohio

The 15-year-old boy accused of sexually assaulting a 6-year-girl on a school bus in Ohio worked as a “bus helper,” the Benjamin Logan Local Schools superintendent said, according to WSYX.

Bus helpers are tasked with making sure younger students get off at the right bus stop, 10TV reported.

“Typically younger students sit at the front with older students at the back,” WSYX reported, “but the teen’s role allowed him to move freely on the bus.”

In that role, “the student ... violated a lot of trust in a lot of ways,” Superintendent Dave Harmon said, according to the Dayton Daily News.

The Logan County Sheriff’s Office is now “investigating what was reported as an alleged sexual related crime involving Benjamin Logan students” in Bellefontaine, Ohio, Harmon said in a letter sent home to parents on Monday. The letter was also posted to the district’s Facebook page.

Harmon said “this incident or potentially multiple incidents” took place on School Bus No. 28.

The incident was reported to police after the 6-year-old girl told her parents what happened when she got home from school, WCMH reported. That was on Oct. 24.

She was a “very brave young lady to speak up and say, ‘Hey, this is not right,’” Harmon said, according to the Daily News.

The teen was arrested and is in custody at the Logan County Juvenile Detention Center, 10TV reported. Sheriff Randy Dodds said the boy has been charged with rape and gross sexual imposition, according to 10TV.

“I am not at liberty to share the intimate details of what exactly occurred,” Harmon said in the letter to parents. He asked that they talk to their children about the “difficult topic” and to contact police if they have any other information.

The sheriff’s office is investigating if there are other victims, according to WSYX.

“There were indicators from the sheriff that the perpetrator may have done things with other students on the bus,” Harmon said, according to the station.