COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- A Tabor City mom says her five-year-old son was raped at school. But it's who she says attacked the boy that you just won't believe.
Sherri Loika says her son was sodomized in a restroom at Tabor City Elementary School by a five-year-old classmate. She found out the night it happened after his teacher called.
"She told me that the boys were taking a long time in the bathroom, so she went in to hurry them along, and that's when she noticed another boy's penis was on my son's leg," Loika said.
But that wasn't all. When Loika asked her son what happened, he says a different boy raped him.
A doctor examined her son, but Loika says there was no physical tearing or scrapes because of the boys' ages and their physical development. Wednesday, she says a psychologist confirmed her fear.
"Most kids, she said walk in there and give her short yes or no answers," Loika said. "He spelled out exactly what happened to him and drew pictures of it. She told me there's no doubt in her mind that this incident did occur with him."
Since the attack, Loika says her son lays in bed in every morning refusing to go to school.
"He used to get up every morning before the alarm clock would go off and get his clothes on, and he would be ready to go to school," she said. "Now, all he wants to do is lay there. He doesn't want to go there."
Loika claims the school threatened her son with truancy for staying home, even though the school would not remove him from the same class as his alleged attacker. Loika says Superintendent Alan Faulk called her today, finally agreeing to transfer her son to another school. Faulk did not want to comment because of sensitivity of the situation.
Loika showed us a letter from DSS and the investigation report from the Columbus County Sheriff's Office. Both said nothing could be done about the situation and the investigation has been closed. Under state law a child under six cannot be held criminally liable.
"Nobody is trying to investigate anything," Loika said. "They're trying to throw their hands up, throw it under the rug like it never even happened."