The student, who is referred to as "Jane Doe" in the petition, claims district officials provided little help in dealing with the assault and claims the district has had "at least nine incidents of sexual misconduct or assault since 2010."
According to the petition, the assault took place February 24, 2016. Jane Doe's stepmother took her to Freeman Hospital for a sexual assault examination and reported the assault to the Joplin Police Department.
It was also reported to district administrators, including the Joplin High School senior assistant principal, according to the lawsuit.
It was not the first time the male student who committed the assault had been involved in something of that nature, the petition said.
Prior to the assault, the District knew or had reason to know that the male District student who sexually assaulted Plaintiff had engaged in prior sexual misconduct involving female students.
Despite this, the petition said, the district "deliberately refused to take any action to protect (Jane Doe), took only late and ineffective remedial action when the District did decide to act (and) abetted the harassing student’s conduct."
Because of the assault and sexual harassment and the district's handling of it, the petition says Jane Doe has suffered "emotional distress, anxiety, fear, and depression."
Eventually, she had to finish the school year off-campus.
The single count of the action charges the school district with "harassment and denial of public accommodations."
Jane Doe filed a charge of discrimination with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights on May 17, 2016. The Commission issued a right to sue notice.
Jane Doe's atrorney, Dan Curry of the Brown & Curry firm in Kansas City, is asking for compensatory damages, punitive damages, costs, and attorney fees.
5 comments:
Sounds like the district like to turn the other cheek and has a blind eye!!
Seems like lawsuits and public exposure is the only thing to get their attention anymore.
Pretty sad we as parents have to trust them with our kiddos.
All the while we send them to school to get an education and learn.
But as parents you just hope and pray that they return home to you unharmed and safe.
Here we go.....gotta be CJ's fault.
So was that CJ Huff's or Norm Ridder's fault?
There are hundreds of security cameras at the high school. If this happened at the school the police would have a strong case against the boy. If she wasn't accommodated how was she able to finish the year off-campus? If the boy did this before and was found guilty he would not be able to be at the school. I feel for the girl and hope she can heal from what happened to her. The school can only do so much to a student that has not been convicted of a crime. There are too many questions that will hopefully get answered through this process. If we pass judgement on the boy, the school or the girl now it is without all the facts. That's not fair to anybody.
Wonder who the accused kid is? Sounds like he must be part local in crowd.
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