Special ed report on pregnant minor who was victim of rape found no irregularities
By The Star Staff
A special education report on the case of a 13-year-old special needs student who was impregnated by her stepfather found no irregularities, Education Secretary Eliezer Ramos Parés said on Wednesday.
“I had direct communication with school personnel, both with the director, social worker, special education teacher and the service assistant who were accompanying this minor throughout her entire academic year. Likewise with the school psychologist and the rest of the special education component,” the Education secretary said in a radio interview (Noti Uno). “They had a meeting yesterday; they prepared a report on what happened throughout the school year of this minor. She dropped out of school in May, so the report goes back about nine weeks. They do not raise flags; they note that [the] mom is a person who was very present, not only during this school year, but also during the pandemic period. The girl was coming regularly to school and they did not see any physiological signs.”
“Without a doubt, this is a preliminary report, these are preliminary conversations,” Ramos Parés added. “We are going to be analyzing the report with the psychosocial component at the central level, seeing opportunities to review the protocols in which case there is a need to go deeper with a larger investigation and assign responsibilities for what happened. Without question, we all have a responsibility to protect our children.”
Asked if none of the department employees who spent time with the minor noticed that her belly had grown as a result of the pregnancy, Ramos Parés replied that “by the end of the course, she must have been some 20 weeks [pregnant] and what they they allege is that the girl was wearing a fairly loose uniform.”
“I have to tell you that there was a lot of consternation in the conversation I had with each of them separately; there was also a lot of surprise,” he said. “A situation that they found out about through the media and that they did not expect.”
Currently, the minor is seven months pregnant and is confined to a hospital in the Caguas region.
Carlos Soto Rivera, the minor’s stepfather, was charged with child abuse and sexual abuse after he allegedly confessed to having raped the girl.
Subsequently, the mother of the 13-year-old was brought before a magistrate for the filing of criminal charges for negligence. Neither could pay the bail imposed, so they were admitted to a prison institution.