Lawsuit: Officials knew of teens’ sexual harassment complaints before firing teacher
Independence School District officials knew about complaints that an employee sexually harassed female students months before he was fired, according to a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court for Western Missouri.
After Robert L. Bluett, 24, was fired and arrested, one of his victims was bullied and harassed by other students and employees until she left the school, the suit said.
According to the suit, the plaintiff’s parents became aware of reports of harassment in February, nearly two months before Bluett, a paraprofessional at William Chrisman High School in Independence, was fired in April.
In a statement, Independence School District spokeswoman Jana Corrie said the plaintiff and her parents “did not make any of the claims now alleged in the suit” at the time of the alleged harassment. She said that the student and her parents initially reported the allegations against Bluett were untrue.
“When an allegation was reported to a staff member, the district followed protocol and immediately reported this to the appropriate state and local authorities,” Corrie said. “The District continued to follow protocol and worked closely with Independence police regarding the arrest and charges against Robert Bluett.”
The district did not respond to questions regarding when they received a report in time for publication.
The student, who is not named in the suit, and her attorney declined to comment on the suit.
Sexual harassment and abuse
Bluett pleaded guilty in June 2019 to two counts of sexual contact with a student.
According to criminal court records, Bluett was accused of sexually harassing or engaging in sexual conduct with three female students through 2017 and 2018.
The student who is suing the district said in the lawsuit that Bluett sent her sexually explicit text messages asking for a more intimate relationship and coerced her into sending him nude photographs over the social media app Snapchat when she was 16 and 17.
Bluett, the suit says, told the student that “something bad would happen to her” if she did not send the images and sought her out at school to ask for more photos.
He eventually compelled her to meet him off school grounds, the suit says.
According to the suit, the student’s parents learned on Feb. 23, 2018 that a sexual harassment report had been filed about Bluett’s conduct. He was arrested on April 11 and criminally charged the next day.
After he was arrested, Bluett allegedly told police he had had sexual contact with two other students.
According to charging documents, both students told police they had given Bluett oral sex and sent him multiple nude pictures of themselves. One of the student’s encounters with Bluett occurred in March 2018, after the plaintiff’s parents learned a sexual harassment report had been filed with the school.
Continued harassment
After Bluett’s arrest, the suit says, details of his conduct and his victims were shared on social media by students within the Independence School District.
The plaintiff continued to encounter bullying and sexual harassment from “students and employees” in the district, even though she and her parents reported the problem to school officials, the suit says.
She “no longer felt safe in participating in school or school activities,” and ultimately left the district, the suit says.
The suit argues that district employees failed to follow their own policies when they did not prevent the bullying and harassment or end Bluett’s employment when initial reports were made.
The school district — as well as Bluett, Superintendent Dale Herl and William Chrisman High School Principal Mike Becker — are named as defendants in the suit.
