Olathe school district secretly settled lawsuit threatened by stalking victim’s family
Olathe Public Schools quietly settled a threatened lawsuit that accused the district of putting a 10-year-old girl at risk by transferring a teacher from school to school after he was alleged to have engaged in improper conduct with other female students.
James D. Loganbill is now serving a jail sentence for stalking that fourth-grader during the 2019-2020 school year. He photographed the girl fully clothed surreptitiously for his sexual gratification.
Without admitting liability, the district agreed to pay $295,000 to the family of the girl and the law firm representing them in a settlement agreement obtained by The Star that was marked “confidential.” It was finalized in May but only came to light after The Star filed an open records request seeking all legal settlements the district had agreed to since Loganbill’s arrest in June 2020.
In return for the payment, the parents agreed to drop the litigation and to not publicly acknowledge the existence of the settlement or discuss any of the allegations in the lawsuit.
The family had previously told The Star that they intended to sue the district for putting their daughter in danger by allowing Loganbill to continue teaching after learning about alleged past misconduct. According to the settlement agreement, if either party was asked about the status of that lawsuit, the parties were instructed to state that “the matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of the parties.”
The settlement agreement the district provided The Star was heavily redacted. The names of the plaintiffs and Loganbill were blacked out, as were the allegations against the district. But the newspaper was able to confirm through a source that the settlement concerned the Loganbill case.
While other news outlets have named the family, The Star has not previously published the names as the case involved a minor who was the victim of what a judge ruled was a sexually motivated crime.
The girl’s mother declined to comment or even acknowledge the existence of a settlement when contacted.
Loganbill, 60, was sentenced this month to one year in the county jail for reckless stalking and ordered to register as a sex offender for the next 15 years. While not denying the facts of the case, his attorney is appealing the conviction based on his notion that Loganbill’s actions did not constitute a crime.
In March 2020, students in the fourth-grade class Loganbill taught at Meadow Lane Elementary told school officials that Loganbill was photographing one of their classmates when she wasn’t aware of it. Police found more than 200 photos and video-recordings of the girl on his phone and school district-issued iPad. Many of them were from the waist down and fully clothed. Loganbill told police he was sexually attracted to the girl, especially when she wore dark tights and dance pants.
He also told police he had been attracted to girls during previous school years, also because of their apparel.
Police also found evidence that Loganbill was tracking her whereabouts and watching her competitive dance routines on YouTube. He was not accused of touching her inappropriately.
Women who had Loganbill for a teacher years ago came forward after his arrest to say Loganbill also had been overly familiar with them and with girls they knew during his three decades of teaching in the Olathe school district. The Star reported in the fall of 2020 that Olathe school officials were well aware of Loganbill’s attraction to young girls when they assigned him to teach fourth grade at Meadow Lane Elementary School in the fall of 2012.
But the principal who hired him at Meadow Lane had not been told why he left Pioneer Trails Middle School the previous year. A group of seventh-grade cheerleaders told school officials there that they felt uncomfortable around him. He seemed overly interested in them and gave special treatment to one girl in particular.
After an internal investigation, he left Pioneer Trail and finished out the 2011-2012 school year substitute teaching at other Olathe schools before landing the post at Meadow Lane.
The district has never publicly acknowledged any wrongdoing or discussed whether previous administrators mishandled their response to that earlier allegation. The district still declines comment.
“At this time the District has nothing to share or comment on related to the settlement or concerning the matter,” staff counsel Chris Pittman said in an email.
The mother of the girl who was stalked told The Star and other medial outlets in 2020 that they were preparing to sue the district to gain information about Loganbill’s personnel record and press for changes in school policies so that nothing similar happened in the future.
But as the mandatory waiting period for filing a lawsuit was about to end, the district asked that the case go before a mediator rather than be filed in Johnson County District Court. According to the settlement, mediator Bill Sanders heard from both sides at a confidential session on Feb. 15 and they reached a tentative agreement requiring board approval.
That approval came at the end of the March 4 board of education meeting. But from the minutes it was not apparent when they voted to “approve the resolution of the matter of Jane Doe” what they were voting on. The board had just come out of a closed-door session. There was no mention of any money changing hands.
However, Pittman confirmed Tuesday that the Jane Doe resolution was in reference to the $295,000 settlement agreement.
The settlement also required the approval of a judge, which occurred prior to the agreement being signed on May 10, he said.
Loganbill’s arrest sparked a call for legislation that would increase the penalties for stalking. At the time, reckless stalking was a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
It is now a felony.
The case also spurred protests from parents demanding that the district do a better job of tracking teachers with records of misconduct after some of Loganbill’s former students came forward with their stories of him singling them out for his attention.
Demonstrators outside one school board meeting in the summer of 2020 wore T-shirts advertising the support group that the family formed advocating more protection for kids called #notyourdaughter. Others carried signs that read “Don’t Pass the Trash,” a reference to a nation-wide campaign advocating that states adopt laws that make it more difficult for teachers with records of sexual misconduct or violence to move from school to school.
Six states have passed the model legislation known as the SESAME Act, which stands for Stop Educators Sexual Abuse Misconduct and Exploitation — Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey and New York.
The mother of the girl Loganbill stalked said she plans to partner with the SESAME organization and propose that Kansas pass a similar law, which would forbid school districts from agreeing to keep confidential the reasons for the dismissal of teachers who have engaged in sexual misconduct.
SESAME also wants to see a national database established so that school districts can track teachers who pose a potential risk to students.
“I’m so excited to partner with that organization,” the stalking victim’s mother said in a text message. “Such needed legislation...”
She was instrumental in convincing the Kansas Legislature to pass the bill upgrading reckless stalking to felony status and closing the potential loophole on which Loganbill’s attorney plans to appeal his conviction. While the settlement agreement forbids her from talking about the allegations against the district and Loganbill in most public settings, it specifically allows her to speak out while lobbying the Kansas Legislature.
She plans to do that.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
