Mom plans march to protect kids

For years, Bernadine Wade kept quiet about the sexual assaults her daughter endured to and from school in a Jackson Local Schools' van.

Now the township mother plans to share her story during a "March to Protect Our Children" rally at 1 p.m. Friday at North Park on Fulton Drive NW. Attendees will walk to nearby Township Hall, which is across the street from Jackson Local's bus garage on Mudbrook Street NW.

"I'm not only marching for my daughter, I'm marching for every child," said Wade, who wants all school districts in the state to put a monitor on every bus and van that transports students. "I don't care what color they are. You don't send your child to school to be raped, sodomized and forced into oral sex."

SPECIAL-NEEDS STUDENT

Wade's adopted daughter, a 7-year-old special-needs student, was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a teenager on the van from 2003 through October 2004.

Although both Wade's daughter and the teenager lived in the township, they rode together in a seven-passenger van provided by Jackson Local to schools they attended in the Tuslaw Local School District.

"This is a march for everyone," said Moniquec Conner, president of the Stark County NAACP. "There have been 11 different families this has happened to in Ohio. This is to generate awareness."

The sexual assaults against Wade's daughter came to light in November 2004 when another van rider alerted school officials.

DISMISSED

In 2005, Wade filed a civil lawsuit in Stark County Common Pleas Court against the Jackson Local district, a transportation supervisor and two van drivers, accusing them of negligence. She sought $500,000 in damages.

The court, citing Ohio law, ruled the district and its drivers were immune from the liability and dismissed the complaint.

Wade appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. The court has agreed to hear similar but unrelated cases involving the Marlington Local and Massillon school districts.

A subsequent bill, named for Wade's daughter, has been introduced in hopes of changing Ohio law.

FOUR-YEAR NIGHTMARE

"This has been nothing but a nightmare for me and my family," Wade said. "To go through all this hell to find out no one wants to take responsibility. It's been a hard four years of fighting."

The abuser, Justin Abney, pleaded guilty to a juvenile count of gross sexual imposition in 2005, according to Stark County Family Court Records. He served 18 months in a Ohio Department of Youth Services facility.

When the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear the case, Wade began speaking out in the media. She wanted to make other parents throughout the state aware of her situation and how it could affect their children.

"I'm signaling the alarm," Wade said. "Someone is going to listen."

Jackson Local Superintendent Cheryl Haschak declined to address Friday's planned march to the district's bus garage.

"It's gone through the legal process," Haschak said. "The actual case is settled. Other than that, because it involves students, I can't comment."

THEY ARE LISTENING

A video clip on YouTube featuring Wade's interview with a Cleveland TV station has had more than 42,000 hits. Mentions of Wade and her daughter can be found on Web sites and blogs.

Wade's phone rings constantly with calls from people outraged about the incident and the lack of recourse in this type of situation. She wants to reach out to more.

"People are not aware of what's going on," she said. "People have no clue what's happening to their children. That's what this march is all about. I didn't have a clue.

"The only way the school is liable is if your child dies in a traffic accident. They can be beat up, raped or stabbed to death and nothing can be done."

Wade's message has gone beyond Stark County. On Sunday, she traveled to Kalamazoo, Mich., to do a television interview about Friday's rally.

She has done radio interviews with stations throughout the county, including those in Atlanta and Chicago.

Because Wade's daughter's case has drawn so much attention, the Police Department has gotten involved in the planning of the rally, securing a pavilion for attendees and helping to map out a nonintrusive route to the bus garage, Maj. Dave Zink said.

Wade isn't sure who'll show up, but the rally is just the beginning of her campaign.

"I'm not going to stop until I'm on the 'Oprah Winfrey Show,' " Wade said. "Until that happens, I'm going to keep it going. It doesn't end with the march. It's the beginning."