Jury returns verdict in sexual abuse, harassment suit against Bethel School District
Jurors have reached a verdict in a sexual abuse and harassment lawsuit brought by a special education student against the Bethel School District.
Jurors awarded $500,000 Oct. 20 to the student, identified in court records as C.K.M., following a trial that lasted a little more than two weeks in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
The lawsuit said the 23-year-old woman was abused by another special education student during the 2012-13 school year when they were both 13-year-olds in their first year at Bethel High School.
The jury found that the district was negligent in failing to protect C.K.M. from the other student, and that the district violated her constitutional rights by failing to properly report the sexual abuse and to enforce the district’s sexual harassment policy because of her disability, according to the verdict form.
“In the special education program they don’t enforce the discipline under the sexual harassment policy, but instead they redirect, that’s their word, they redirect any student who may be involved in sexualized activity to do something different,” said Loren Cochran, one of the attorneys who represented C.K.M.
Jerry Moberg, an attorney who represented the district, said Friday: “The district feels strongly that it provided adequate supervision. Bethel has a good history of providing safe and appropriate public education to disabled students, and it will continue to do so, but it also respects the jury’s verdict and the process. We can always learn from jury verdicts whether we agree or disagree with them.”
C.K.M. was sexually abused and harassed by her classmate, who had previously assaulted classmates in the Clover Park School District, according to the lawsuit. C.K.M.’s court filings alleged the other student should have had one-on-one supervision, and that Bethel removed his one-on-one paraeducator when he entered high school without following the proper process.
“The Clover Park School District provided information to the Bethel School District outlining the dangerousness of this student and his prior sexual assaults,” said Tom Vertetis, another attorney who represented C.K.M.
Bethel administrators, Vertetis argued, didn’t appropriately communicate that information to the classroom teacher.
“We knew that,” Moberg said about the prior misconduct. “We worked every day to keep this classroom safe for those kids.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
