Fla. jury awards girl assaulted on bus $1.7M

Published On: Feb 07 2013 11:48:57 AM EST
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -

Jurors in West Palm Beach have awarded a mentally challenged girl $1.7 million for the trauma suffered when she was raped on a school bus in 2007.

The jury deliberated a little more than two hours Wednesday. But the Palm Beach Post reports the girl's attorneys must now persuade the Florida Legislature to lift a cap on jury awards. That's because under state law, government agencies in 2007 could only be forced to pay $100,000 for injuries resulting in their wrongdoing.


Jurors rejected the school district's argument that the girl was too young and too mentally disabled to understand what a 15-year-old disabled student did to her.

After the incident, the school district decided that younger students could no longer ride on buses with older children.

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