In 2000, a 16-year-old Graham High School student got a ride home from his English as a Second Language teacher. Nearly 22 years later, he claims that the teacher took advantage of the situation to sexually assault him.
That student is now suing that teacher and the Alamance-Burlington Board of Education, saying the board is at fault for that teacher’s alleged actions as his employer.
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The teacher accused of abusing the student apparently has not faced criminal charges. The former student filed suit against the school board at the end of December in Alamance County Superior Court. According to his suit, one afternoon in 2000, the student left school headed home, and his ESL teacher offered him a ride. The student accepted.
On the way, the teacher stopped at his own home and, according to the suit, took the student into his bedroom and touched his genitals. When the student started crying, the teacher stopped and took him home.
Because of the incident, the student “suffered severe mental and physical injuries,” and “incurred medical and other expenses,” and the teacher’s alleged abuse was sexual battery the school board should have known about and failed to stop.
The school board is liable, according to the suit, for failing to properly supervise the teacher or train him “regarding appropriate interactions with children," and “failed to intervene when there was clear and convincing evidence of the inappropriate relationship between Defendant (teacher) and young students who participated in the English as a Second Language academic classes at Graham High School.”
The former student seeks financial compensation for medical bills, ongoing emotional distress and reduced earning capacity brought on by a trauma that “has impacted every aspect of Plaintiff’s life.”
The school district did not confirm whether the teacher named in the suit actually taught at Graham High School or if and how he left the system. The board’s attorney said the board hadn’t yet been served.
The board made a large cash settlement last year with a former student another teacher had victimized. In that case, however, the teacher had been convicted of multiple counts of taking indecent liberties with a student, and the former student took legal action against the board within a couple of years of the crime.
Isaac Groves is the Alamance County government watchdog reporter for the Times-News and the USA Today Network. Call or text 919-998-8039 with tips and comments or follow him on Twitter @TNIGroves.
