The Ocosta School District was negligent when it failed to prevent a 15-year-old male student from repeatedly sexually assaulting a 7-year-old female student on a school district bus in 2017, according to a lawsuit filed by the victim’s family Monday in Grays Harbor County Superior Court.
Sim Osborn, the Seattle attorney representing the family of the victim, said the district is responsible for providing a safe learning environment for its students.
“On the school bus kids are arranged by age,” Osborn said in a statement, from youngest in front to oldest in back. He said the 15-year-old was being bullied by classmates in the back of the bus, so as part of the school’s policy on bullying “they let the kid come down to sit with the younger children.”
According to Osborn, the student who was being bullied was known to have acted inappropriately at school and the district contacted the student’s family about it, but the bus driver was not informed, nor was anyone else in authority in the district.
The district was in a period of leadership transition at the time the assaults were reported. Then superintendent Paula Akerlund retired at the end of June 2017 and current superintendent Kurt H. Hilyard began his tenure July 3, 2017.
Asked for comment, Hilyard provided the following comment via email: “As this is a pending legal matter, I am unable at this time to comment on the specifics of this matter.”
The family that filed the suit is asking the district for damages to pay for medical and psychological treatments, and for pain and suffering; the total amount has not been disclosed. Osborn said the victim’s family wants the school system to make changes to the way it supervises students on school buses.
The school district has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit.
In June of 2017, the bus driver witnessed the 15-year-old holding the hand of the 7-year-old victim “like a boyfriend and girlfriend would hold hands,” and reported the behavior to the school district, which contacted the Grays Harbor Sheriff, according to Osborn.
Osborn said the investigation indicated the victim had been assaulted as many as 20 times. The suit claims that at least three students have come forward since then to say the bullied student had inappropriately touched them as well.
“It’s horrible what happened to this girl,” said Osborn, who added the 15-year-old student posed a “clear danger not only our client but other students.”
Osborn said that in addition to putting the 15-year-old next to much younger children, the district failed to adequately monitor students’ behavior on the bus. He noted that the video system in the bus was frequently inoperable, and when it was working, the cameras were so poorly positioned the footage was unusable.
According to a statement released by Osborne, “Police records show (the 15-year-old) would often ask the bus driver to sit next to specific girls, including the girl he was convicted of abusing. When questioned about his actions, (he) admitted to sheriff’s deputies that he committed at least 18 separate acts of child molestation on the plaintiff, and acknowledged he committed the acts for sexual gratification in a signed statement.”
Osborn said the victim is seeking psychological help and has demonstrated behavior common with young victims of sex crimes.
“She will need years – perhaps a lifetime – of professional help to try and repair the unspeakable damage she suffered,” Osborn added.
The assailant was later found guilty in juvenile court and sentenced to more than 2 and one half years in a juvenile facility, according to the attorney’s statement, which adds he will have to register as a sex offender upon his release.
