Shawnee Mission to pay six figures in lawsuit settlement for sex crimes at school
A federal judge approved a $165,000 settlement between the Shawnee Mission School District and a student who said she was sexually assaulted by a student who had already been accused of repeated offenses.
The district agreed to settle in September but the amount was not disclosed until it was approved Monday.
The Shawnee Mission School District declined to comment on the settlement. The plaintiff’s attorney did not respond to The Star’s request for comment in time for publication.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Kansas, stemmed from a 2017 incident in an 8th grade study hall at Westridge Middle School.
According to the suit, a male student “forcibly put his hands down (a female student’s) pants and penetrated her.”
The suit alleged that the same student had made unwanted physical advances towards three other students and that, while the district knew about the incidents, officials failed to report them to law enforcement.
The student was suspended and then expelled in March 2017. He was convicted later that year of three counts of battery and one count of aggravated liberties with a child.
According to the lawsuit, the female student’s father determined that continued pursuit of the lawsuit and a trial was not in the best interest of his daughter’s mental well being and would cause significant setbacks in her treatment following the assault.
As a condition of the settlement the female student released her claims against the district and agreed to make no further claims related to the 2017 incident.
Forty-five percent of the settlement was allocated to attorneys fees. The rest was placed in a restricted account controlled by the student’s father until she turns 18.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 4:32 PM.
