Thursday, December 23, 2021

Jasper County jury: Joplin R-8 must pay $817,000 in damages to rape victim


Following a five-day trial, a Jasper County jury awarded $817,000 in damages to a former Joplin High School student who claimed she was sexually assaulted at the school and school officials provided little help.

According to the lawsuit, 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 girl told her story in a first-person account filed with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.

I first met (the boy) at my school, Joplin High School, when we had a class together during first hour in the fall of 2015. The next semester, in January 2016, he began to message me on Facebook asking if we could have sex.

I said, "No way." That semester, I had fifth hour with (him) in the international foods class. We were on a team together with some other friends. We started talking again then the real harassment began.

He would message me asking if we could have sex, send me (penis) pictures and say he was horny.

When my boyfriend broke up with me, I told (a friend in that class) about it. Then he began asking me if I wanted to meet up and have sex. I told him no, I am going through a bad break up. I became infuriated with him pestering me to "show me your body" and other comments.

On February 24, 2016, I was already having a bad day after breaking up with my boyfriend and needed a hug from a friend. (He) had me sit down under a rock ledge under the back stairs, then he shoved me down, pulled down my pants and raped me.

I was telling him no, to stop, but he just kept going. Finally, I used my knee and shoved him off.

He sat down and while I was crying and slowing getting my pants back on, he said, "I was helping you get over (her boyfriend)."

I left in a hurry back to my seventh hour and my friend (name redacted) saw me (we had seventh hour together, as well). I told her everything that happened and then later reported the rape to police with my parents.

I was not able to return to classes at Joplin High School after that. It took more than a month for the school district to accommodate me with classes on line to take so I could finish my course work and graduate.

We found out from the prosecuting attorney's office while they were investigating my case that there had been 10 other incidents regarding Joplin High School, including three rapes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So sad that the school didn’t protect this student from that predator. The high school design contains several obscure locations that make it difficult to control. Maybe the architect should share some of the responsibility for this. It is the same group the school district used for the new Dover Hill school design.