Creation Village World School in Celebration. (Photo/Google Maps)
A Polk County family has filed a lawsuit against a Celebration private Christian school, alleging it failed to properly supervise young children and allowed their daughter to be repeatedly sexually abused by another student over two school years beginning when she was four years old.
The civil complaint, filed March 9 in Osceola County Circuit Court, accuses CDF Celebration LLC, doing business as Creation Village World School, of negligence, negligent misrepresentation and causing loss of parental consortium. The family, represented by Miami-based Leighton Panoff Law, is seeking a jury trial and more than $50,000 in damages.
The child’s mother and father—who are not being identified to protect their daughter’s identity—described to the News-Gazette what they call a years-long pattern of unexplained medical symptoms, fear and anxiety that only made sense after their child disclosed the alleged abuse on Nov. 5, 2025.
“She had chronic stomach pain,” the mother said. “Probably 75 percent of the time upon driving up to school, she would just say her stomach really hurts.”
The mother said her daughter also suffered frequent headaches, recurring urinary tract infections and an increasing reluctance to attend school—a place she once loved.
“It was just really confusing for me,” she said. “I just could not get to the bottom of it.”
The father said his wife was taking their daughter to doctors almost weekly as they searched for a medical explanation, with physicians prescribing antibiotics, ordering ultrasounds and discussing a possible brain scan. At one point, the parents even considered that their only child might have cancer.
“We just thought up until the disclosure, there’s something there that we haven’t caught yet,” the father said.
Marine Dordulian, a licensed clinical social worker and credentialed school social worker who co-founded the mental health platform Shrinks in Sync, said new behavioral or physical changes can signal distress in young children.
“Pay attention to those changes in behaviors, especially when they’re sudden,” Dordulian said, citing examples such as anxiety, separation anxiety, school refusal, irritability, sleep and appetite changes.
Dordulian cautioned that such symptoms do not automatically mean abuse occurred but said they are important warning signs for parents and professionals to consider.
According to the lawsuit, the girl attended the school’s pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs when the alleged abuse occurred. The complaint states a male classmate repeatedly assaulted the child during recess at a wooden “pirate ship” playground structure that obstructed staff members’ view of children playing inside it. The complaint alleges the abuse included digital penetration, kissing and fondling and continued “on a near daily basis” for about two years.
The father said he immediately believed his daughter after she identified the pirate ship as the location where the abuse allegedly occurred.
“It’s the one place at the entire school that would have a line-of-sight issue where a student could do something and the teachers would not be able to see,” he said.
The lawsuit claims school officials knew the structure created hidden areas where children could not be adequately supervised and alleges teachers and staff were distracted by cell phones during recess and failed to properly monitor children.
The family further alleges a pre-kindergarten teacher instructed students not to tell their parents what happened at school, creating what the lawsuit describes as a “no-tell” culture that discouraged the child from disclosing the alleged abuse.
The parents said they became alarmed after their daughter repeatedly refused to discuss school and began shutting down when asked about her day.
“She’s like, ‘No, I can’t tell you what’s happening here. My teacher said, don’t tell you what’s happening here,’” the mother said.
The parents said they asked for their daughter to be moved to another classroom because of concerns about the teacher. The parents said the transfer placed the girl in the same class as the boy later accused of assaulting her.
The mother said the alleged abuse finally came to light on Nov. 5, 2025, after the family spent about 30 minutes trying to calm their daughter before school. Upon returning home, the mother said she still felt something was wrong. Her daughter was playing normally, she said, and did not appear physically sick.
“When I asked her, ‘Is there any other reason why you would not want to go to school?’ that’s when she disclosed what was going on,” the mother said. “My heart just dropped and I just started to sob.”
The parents said they immediately contacted the Osceola County Sheriff ’s Office and later reported the allegations to the Florida Department of Children and Families. DCF had not replied to requests for comment prior to press time.
The next day, the parents said, they went to the school to report their daughter’s account. The father said school officials later told them their daughter was safe to return to campus but did not provide details about what would be done.
“We said, can we get a written safety plan? Can you tell us how our daughter will be safe at the school?” he said. “They ignored every one of those requests.”
The complaint maintains the girl was expelled from school on Dec. 23, 2025, in what the family describes as retaliatory action after she stopped attending classes while undergoing treatment with a child psychologist and amid her parents’ ongoing safety concerns. The family claims the expulsion forced them to homeschool their daughter and incur additional educational expenses. The parents said their daughter now receives inhome instruction from a private teacher and continues therapy.
“She hasn’t been out of our sight,” the mother said. “She has not felt comfortable.”
According to sheriff’s records, detectives documented the allegations and spoke with the boy accused in the case, who denied wrongdoing. The case was later closed as unfounded because, due to the children’s ages, investigators could not establish criminal intent. The parents said they later heard from other families that the boy was no longer attending Creation Village, but said they were never told whether he had been removed, withdrawn or enrolled elsewhere.
Neither representatives of Creation Village World School nor its attorney have responded to requests for comment. However, in court filings, school representatives denied that the girl was sexually abused by another student during school hours on school property and also denied that the child was expelled from the school. The school admitted the pirate ship structure existed and acknowledged there were no video cameras inside it during the relevant time period.
Creation Village World School’s published discipline policy states teachers are responsible for providing a “safe and nurturing classroom environment,” documenting student misconduct and reporting serious disciplinary issues to administrators. The policy also identifies “physical abuse,” threats and repeated inappropriate physical contact between students as serious offenses that may warrant suspension or expulsion.
Among other allegations, the suit claims the school failed to adequately supervise children, failed to recognize warning signs of child-on-child sexual abuse, failed to keep children visible during recess and falsely represented the school as a safe environment for students.
The lawsuit has also prompted the family to push for statewide reporting reforms involving serious student safety incidents in public and private schools.
