ACWORTH, Ga. -- Three boys ages 8 and 9 were being held Monday in a detention center on charges of kidnapping and raping an 11-year-old girl in the woods near a suburban apartment complex, officials said. The alleged attack happened Thursday and the girl's mother reported it to authorities Sunday, Acworth police Capt. Wayne Dennard said.

The 11-year-old girl said the boys lured her into the woods behind her Acworth apartment complex.

"And they said, let me see your breasts and I said no," the girl said. "And they said you better do it. And they had this kind of like a rope thing and he was hitting me with it and it hurt really bad."

The girl said the little boys raped her against her will.

"I feel very mad what they did to me, because I wish they didn't do this to me," the girl said.

The three boys -- an 8-year-old and two 9-year-olds -- appeared in juvenile court Monday afternoon, dwarfed by the courtroom chairs and wearing navy blue jump suits and shackles. Their names were being withheld because of their age.

Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head said the boys could not be charged with felony crimes because of their age but could be tried for delinquent acts that could place them in a juvenile facility for up to five years.

Juvenile Court Judge A. Gregory Poole issued a gag order preventing the lawyers from commenting further.

Acworth Police Chief Mike Wilkie said one of the boys was accused of threatening to hit the girl with a rock before the assault occurred.

Wilkie also said the investigation is "far from over," and investigators are looking into claims that after the incident, the girl talked about it with her friends at a slumber party.

Prosecutors had not received the case report from police on Monday, nor had they decided whether to try the suspects as adults.

"That decision hasn't been made," said Kathy Watkins, a spokeswoman for the Cobb County District Attorney's office. She had no further comment.

"They do need to be taught a lesson because if they do it to her, they could do it to somebody else," the victim's mother said. "And who knows when they become teenagers what they can do to other girls."

The father of one of the boys said his son is being accused of luring the girl into the woods.

"He's only 45 inches, 40 pounds in the third grade," the boy's father said. "This girl's in the fifth grade, she's 11 years old, 2 foot taller than him. How can my boy with a broken wrist be accused of any kidnapping charge?"

The boy's father said he believes she made up the story to cover up her promiscuity.

"She's trying to cover her own butt by getting everyone else in more serious trouble," the boy's father said. "I guess we're just going to have to see how this is going to unfold."

Acworth, which sits 30 miles northwest of Atlanta along the shores of Lake Allatoona, is a town of about 17,000.

"This wouldn't be normal anywhere, but especially not Acworth," Dennard said.

The suspects are scheduled to appear at a hearing at 2 p.m. at the Cobb County Juvenile Court, Dennard said.