WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — The West Memphis School District has responded for the first time since an 8-year-old girl reported being touched inappropriately by two fellow students on a school bus.

But the girl’s mother said it’s too little too late.

Monique Miller said West Memphis school officials didn’t reach out to her until the day after her 8-year-old daughter was groped on the bus.

“They didn’t call, didn’t notify me,” she said.

Miller’s daughter told her mom after school Tuesday that two boys touched her private parts, and that she told her bus driver and principal at Faulk Elementary School.

“Didn’t nothing start getting done or I didn’t get a phone call until after 12:30 Wednesday, and that was after I went and did my report and I called the news,” Miller said.

WREG reached out to the school system on Wednesday, but didn’t get a statement until Friday, saying:

“The safety and confidentiality of all our students are of the utmost importance to the West Memphis School District. The incident of inquiry is being investigated and will be addressed appropriately.”

School officials also told Miller there’s usually a monitor on the buses, but Tuesday, that employee was sick.

“My immediate reaction was anger because you have a young girl who was violated and it was completely ignored,” said Lincoln Barnett, with the Hughes Community Action Network. “Had she not told her mother, her mother would have never been notified.”

Barnett sent an email to school officials demanding those students and employees be held accountable.

“You can’t sweep this under the rug,” he said. “That’s how you get young adults that grow up and young men that grow up thinking that they can do certain things to women and get by with it, because it goes unchecked at an early age.”

Miller said Friday she’s considering contacting a lawyer about the incident.