A Greenbrier Christian Academy kindergartener was repeatedly molested by classmates, a lawsuit says. The teacher missed it all.

It was naptime at Greenbrier Christian Academy and the kindergarteners were supposed to be sleeping.

But not all of them were, according to a new lawsuit.

While a teacher sat at her desk in the darkened room, a young boy joined a 5-year-old girl on her mat to play a game he called "privates." It was sexual abuse, the lawsuit said, and the boy was one of at least three in the class to molest the child under the nose of teacher Cindy Jessee.

"These were acts which were not previously known to this child and which should be absolutely foreign to a five year old child," the lawsuit said. "The classmates, all male, repeatedly performed sexual acts on (the child) and requested (the child) perform sexual acts on them ... while Jessee was present in the classroom but not appropriately supervising the children."

The child's grandmother on Tuesday sued Jessee, who still works at the private school on Kempsville Road and appears to be set to welcome a new class of students on Monday. The suit, which also names the school and Patrice Dykes, its director of preschool and kindergarten education, seeks $4.85 million in damages.

Attorneys Emily Munn and Christy Murphy declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying in a statement the allegations "speak for themselves."

School officials did not respond to multiple calls and emails, and a man who answered the door Friday said no one was available to speak with a reporter. The lawsuit, however, claims staff told the girl's parents they had spoken with one of the boys involved and that he admitted to what happened and was in counselling.

The school -- which the girl no longer attends -- did not contact the Chesapeake Police Department nor the state Department of Social Services about the alleged abuse, officials said.

State law mandates teachers of private and public schools file a report if they have "reason to suspect that a child is an abused or neglected child." Failure to report incidents of alleged rape, sodomy, or object sexual penetration is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year in jail.

The state Department of Social Services, however, doesn't have the authority to enforce that section of code, according to Necole Simmonds, a department spokeswoman.

"All of that has to go through law enforcement," she said, explaining the girl's family or someone else would need to pursue the matter.

To date, that doesn't appear to have happened.

Detective David Weir, a Chesapeake police spokesman, said the girl's grandmother did file a police report in November 2018 and that the investigation was subsequently closed without charges.

"The alleged offenders and alleged victim are not at an age to have the mental maturity to form criminal intent for their actions," he said.

Greenbrier Christian Academy was founded in 1983 with a strong religious foundation. The school's mission statement quotes three bible verses, and its student handbook stresses that "promiscuous and tolerant attitudes towards relationships as put forth by society today are not acceptable." It specifically states "physical contact such as handholding or kissing is not permissible on campus."

According to its website, the school charges $7,375 an academic year for a student to attend full-day kindergarten.

It is unclear when the boys started abusing the girl, who is now 7, but it appears to have begun shortly after she started at the school in August 2017. The lawsuit said she started exhibiting "bizarre behavior" later that year.

She was afraid to be left alone and stopped going to the bathroom and playing by herself. She would often hide under tables and had trouble controlling her emotions. And at night, she would experience nightmares and pray to God to make them go away.

"None of these behaviors were normal or routine for the child in the previous months and years," the lawsuit said.

The child also began refusing to get out of the car in the morning when it was time to go to school and began pleading with her grandparents to pick her up before naptime.

The girl eventually told her grandmother that at least three boys in her class had been molesting her during naptime, the lawsuit said. The abuse, the child said, had been going on for months while the teacher played music and worked at her desk near the door.

The lawsuit alleged the boys also molested another female student at the school.

The girl's grandmother confronted Dykes and Jessee about the allegation May 17, 2018, but asked them not to speak to the child about it without her permission, the lawsuit said.

Despite the request, Jessee still approached the girl about the abuse, the lawsuit said.

The girl remains in counseling more than a year after the abuse came to light. The lawsuit said she is coping with nightmares, sleeplessness and "advanced sexual development and thoughts" as a result of what happened, and is also suffering from "betrayal trauma."

The school's staff "showed an utter disregard of prudence owed to a five year old in school who was supposed to be cared for and supervised by them," the lawsuit said.

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