Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – A Stonington couple hopes the Illinois General Assembly takes their daughter’s sexual abuse more seriously than the Taylorville school district seems to.

Ashley and Chadd Peden (pictured) appeared at a statehouse news conference Wednesday with State Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield) and State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Murrayville). Their bill would require an immediate expulsion in such cases.

The Pedens say a year ago, a then-eighth-grader, age 14, assaulted their daughter, then ten years old and in fifth grade, repeatedly over the course of a week on the school bus and bus stop. Juvenile court has been handling the boy’s case.

The girl’s parents said it took the school district three weeks to move the boy to alternative school; in the interim, all that happened was to transfer the youth to another school bus – a bus full of kids even younger than the Peden girl. What’s more, said Ashley Peden, when the current school year was to begin, Taylorville attempted to put the boy back into regular school.