Sources close to the district said pre-notice of two pending lawsuits was received, but as of June 30, only one family had actually filed paperwork in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

The suit alleges Upper St. Clair administrators and teachers violated Pennsylvania and federal law when they declined to contact township police after their daughter began reporting violent assaults to school officials beginning in late 2007.

Township police were not aware of the assaults until early February 2008. It was at this time the girl confided to her parents who then called law enforcement. The alleged victims and suspect are all in the district’s special needs program. Not all have the same IEP (individualized education program), however.

According to the lawsuit, the girl was raped for the first time “at knifepoint at a location off school property in  autumn 2007.” This alleged rape was not reported by the girl until law enforcement began its investigation in February 2008.

An internal township police memo in early March said two other girls reported groping and harassment to school officials by “the same male” as early as January 2008.

Since the male involved is a juvenile, the entire record and disposition of his case has been sealed by the courts. He was detained at Shuman Juvenile Detention Center and then released under house arrest at his grandparents’ home in Upper St. Clair in late March.

His case was alleged to have been heard by juvenile court on or about June 20. The hearing and its possible outcome are not available because there is a gag order according to Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Mike Manko .

School officials named in the federal suit are Superintendent Dr. Pat O’Toole, Dr. Terrence Kushner, assistant superintendent, Dr. Michael Ghilani, high school principal, Dr. Sharon Suritsky, supervisor of special education, Jace Palmer, assistant principal, Lou Angelo, assistant principal, Esther Haguel, intervention specialist and Jennifer Wagner, teacher.

O’Toole declined to respond to the suit on July 1.

School board president Angela Petersen could not comment. She said, “As individual board members we can’t make any comment on litigation. As you know, there are very personal issues involved in this case.”

According to the lawsuit, the girl was assaulted in early December. When the teacher inquired about her bruises, the girl responded that the male student had assaulted her. This alleged assault was not reported as sexual.

In early January, the suit alleges, the attacks at school escalated to sexual assault with the girl again confiding to her teacher that the male was forcing her to perform sex acts.

Two other girls, according to the suit, reported to the teacher that the boy had sent them obscene text messages. One girl said the boy grabbed her buttocks and breasts.

The lawsuit contends the district response to the girls’ accusations was to give the boy three days of in-school suspension, contact his parents and make him write notes of apology to the girls.

The teacher allegedly asked Ghilani if she could walk the girls to the school bus. The suit alleges he refused the request.

Surveillance video shows the girl being forcibly dragged from a girls restroom and into a stairwell on Feb. 4, where she was assaulted.  A bloody handprint on the wall remained for days after the attacks. The suit said the other girls were assaulted and raped on that stairwell.

Since Feb. 4, sources indicate there might be up to eight girls who told police they were either raped or assaulted by a 14-year-old male both on and off school property.

The 14-year-old male was first charged Feb. 7 by Upper St. Clair Township police with five counts of rape involving two girls.

On Feb. 12, additional charges involving two more girls were filed by the police. Those charges included a single charge of rape, terroristic threats, aggravated assault and indecent assault on one victim and one count of aggravated indecent assault, two counts of simple assault and three counts of terroristic threats on a second.