UPDATE JUNE 19: An administrator for Mother Earth School said the school responded to the incident by calling the Oregon Department of Human Services.

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The father of a 4-year-old girl has filed a $1 million lawsuit against an outdoor immersion school, saying two older male students poked his daughter with a stick and fondled her as she crouched to urinate in the woods next to Tryon Creek State Park.

Mother Earth School employees told kids to urinate in the forest but failed to properly supervise the 4-year-old girl on June 1, 2017, the day the boys targeted her, said Portland attorney Randall Vogt, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the girl last week. The boys were 5 and 6, at the time, Vogt said.

School policy called for the children to relieve themselves outside on the ground, Vogt said. The school had a composting toilet for bowel movements only, he said.

April Blair, the school’s interim director in June 2017, said the incident happened at a transition time at the school -- as parents dropped off their children in the morning. Blair said class hadn’t yet gathered with the teacher for the day, although the teacher was aware that the 4-year-old girl had stepped aside to urinate.

Blair said when the school learned about the incident, “we took it very seriously.”

Blair said the school contacted the Oregon Department of Human Services.

“What we were told by DHS is that they weren’t going to investigate,” Blair said. “They told us because of the ages of the children, they considered this to be natural exploration and not abuse.”

Blair said the school also called the Children’s Center -- a child-abuse intervention center -- and asked a representative to talk to parents about the incident. But a meeting couldn’t be scheduled with the representative before the end of the school year, Blair said.

The tiny school was located on a small farm immediately adjacent to Tryon Creek State Park, along Southwest Boones Ferry Road.

A YouTube video of its grounds showed a yurt, tilled fields and open space surrounded by forest. The private school had been in operation since 2008 and enrolled students in preschool through the third grade.

An August 2017 Facebook post says the school was closing “due to significant unexpected changes in enrollment as well as other factors that cannot be reconciled.”

The lawsuit describes the June 2017 incident as "sexual abuse." The girl has engaged in behavior common for child sexual abuse victims -- exposing herself to other children, pulling down her pants and throwing things, Vogt said. The behavior was noticeably out of character for her, he said.

But the boys' intent isn't clear because of their young age -- it's hard to tell if they were interested only in bullying the girl or if they also had sexual motivation, Vogt said.

According to the lawsuit, the girl had been bullied by the two boys leading up to the encounter. Vogt said the boys subjected her to name calling and shoving.

The suit also says the school failed to warn the girl’s parents that one of the boys might pose a danger to her. The school knew about his history before accepting him and also received complaints from other parents about the boy, the suit says.

Vogt said the boy was expelled from the school after the girl told her parents about what happened.

The suit seeks $20,000 for medical expenses and counseling costs. It also seeks $1 million in noneconomic damages for the girl’s psychological trauma.

The suit was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

-- Aimee Green