Lee’s Summit school district didn’t report girl’s rape, blamed her for it: lawsuit
Officials with the Lee’s Summit school district did not notify police about a teenage girl’s alleged rape at a middle school, and they blamed her for the attack, according to a lawsuit the girl filed against the district.
The girl, listed in court records as Jane Doe to protect her identity, said she was raped and sodomized by a male student Dec. 1, 2017, in a boy’s bathroom at Bernard Campbell Middle School, according to the lawsuit filed this month in Jackson County Circuit Court.
The male student had previously been suspended for allegedly sexually assaulting another student on school grounds weeks earlier, the lawsuit said.
In a meeting with the girl’s mother three days after the alleged attack in the bathroom, an assistant principal insisted the girl got “herself raped” and blamed her for disobeying the school’s policy against public displays of affection, according to the lawsuit.
In a statement, the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District said it disputed many of the allegations in the lawsuit.
A district spokesperson, Kelly Wachel, said because of student privacy laws the district could not provide its account of what occurred.
“Instead, the district will defend itself and its employees in court,” the district said.
The district’s attorney, W. Joseph Hatley, said he could not comment on the pending litigation. The defendants had not yet been served with the lawsuit, he said.
Sgt. Christopher Depue, a spokesman for the Lee’s Summit Police Department, said the incident at the school was investigated by police. Prosecutors declined to file charges, he said.
In the lawsuit, the girl claimed the attacker was suspended from school for five days after the first assault he allegedly carried out. He was allowed to participate in activities unsupervised when he returned, she said.
The district failed to follow its own policies to ensure the girl and other students were safe at school, the lawsuit said. Officials did not contact the state’s family services division or local police, the petition stated.
After the girl’s assault, district officials could not articulate the district’s sexual harassment policy, according to the lawsuit.
More than a dozen people, including school board members, a counselor and coaches, were named as defendants in the lawsuit.
One of the girl’s attorneys, Jonathan Soper, called the district’s handling of his client’s alleged assault “wholly inappropriate.” He said blaming a victim, putting them on trial, illustrates why so many assaults go unreported.
“I think it was terrible,” Soper said. “It not only discourages other victims from coming out, but it has a negative impact and it only exacerbates the damages and trauma of coping with an assault like that.”
School investigation
A school guidance counselor insisted the girl’s symptoms were not the result of a sexual assault but instead were in her head, according to the lawsuit.
The girl could fully participate in her education, she was told, if only she would “face her fears,” the girl’s attorneys wrote.
The district attempted to “force her” to return to the scene of her alleged rape, the lawsuit said. It denied her the chance to continue learning Spanish, the girl’s attorneys wrote, because the classroom was next to her alleged rapist’s locker.
Suffering from emotional distress and anxiety, the girl pursued disciplinary action against her alleged assailant, according to her attorneys.
But the investigation was meant to protect the district, not to discover what occurred, they said.
The investigation determined sexual contact had occurred, according to the lawsuit. It did not conclude if it was consensual.
The lawsuit said the girl and her mother appealed the decision to former Superintendent Dennis Carpenter, who announced his resignation Tuesday.
Carpenter said there could be no finding of discrimination of harassment if it was unclear whether the girl consented to the sexual contact, according to the lawsuit. He sided against the girl in the appeal.
Carpenter resigned amid criticism from the school board and community after proposing racial equity training for the district. He became the second consecutive superintendent to resign from Lee’s Summit before serving out his contract.
Responding to a post on Twitter, Carpenter said the girl’s lawsuit was not connected to his resignation. He declined to comment when reached by The Star, describing the lawsuit as a school district matter.
The girl eventually appealed the “dreadful decision” to the school board, her attorneys said. At a meeting, the girl became overwhelmed with the thought of reliving her attack in front of a room of strangers and she had to leave, according to the lawsuit.
The girl offered to come back and describe the attack, but the school board said that was not needed, according to the lawsuit.
The board, without hearing from the girl, concluded that it could not determine whether she consented to the sexual contact, the girl’s attorneys said. The board thought she might not be telling the truth, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed by the girl and her mother, listed in court records as Mary Doe, described the situation as “reprehensible.” The lawsuit’s claims included negligence and violations of the Missouri Human Rights Act.
The defendants have not yet filed responses in court.
This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 2:40 PM.
