Former Tacoma students allege abuse by ‘dangerous sexual predators’ in the ‘80s
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- Three ex-Tacoma educators are accused of sexually abusing students in the 1980s.
- The claims were raised in two recently filed lawsuits against Tacoma Public Schools.
- TPS said it was aware of the lawsuits, but it declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
Sex-abuse claims against three former Tacoma Public Schools educators stem from alleged wrongdoing decades ago, but recent lawsuits are seeking to shape how the school district handles similar complaints moving forward.
Two lawsuits filed in October and last month in Pierce County Superior Court said the district ignored warning signs that endangered two female students in their early teens and allowed them to be sexually abused by the three teachers or coaches, described as “dangerous sexual predators,” in the 1980s.
While there is one plaintiff in each case, the lawsuits suggested there were more victims. The filings alleged that the three former educators had “developed a common scheme and plan to sexually groom, harass, and abuse female minor students.” Their behaviors transitioned from grooming to sexual advances, contact and child rape, according to the cases.
“This feels much more sinister than a lot of the school sex-abuse cases that we’ve seen,” attorney Darrell Cochran, who’s representing both plaintiffs, told The News Tribune in a recent interview.
Cochran claimed that the educators would isolate the plaintiffs to have sex and visit their homes. At least one alleged perpetrator confronted a victim in a public place and warned she might get hurt if she broke off their relationship, Cochran said. Sexual contact and abuse also occurred on school district property, according to the suits.
“You’ll see this a lot of time with predators. They’re hiding in plain sight as the popular teacher,” Cochran said. “Almost always the same profile appears as you step back and take a look at it. They’re going to isolate kids who are more vulnerable.”
In a statement Tuesday, district spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy said TPS was aware of the two lawsuits.
“Because these matters involve ongoing litigation, we do not have further information to share at this time,” she said.
The former district educators — none of whom are being individually sued — each worked at then-Stewart Junior High, where the allegations are centered. One of them is accused of wrongdoing in the lawsuit filed Oct. 20.
A teacher and coach at TPS between 1979 and 1990, the man was charged in 1988 with third-degree statutory rape and indecent liberties for allegedly making sexual advances on a 14-year-old student and having sex with her beginning when she was 15, according to archived court case records. The alleged victim accused him of “lowering her grades so that, out of fear, she submitted to sex” and repeatedly warning her not to tell anyone about their relationship or “if he went down, she would go down too,” the records show.
The teacher denied having a sexual relationship with the girl, and prosecutors acknowledged it would be difficult to prove criminal sexual conduct occurred before her 16th birthday, court records show. Ultimately, prosecutors dismissed the charges under an agreement that the man complete an evaluation and counseling, which he did.
There’s no criminal history in Pierce County court records for the two other former educators, who are accused of wrongdoing in the lawsuit filed Dec. 24.
The plaintiffs in both suits are identified only by their initials. The News Tribune isn’t using those identifiers because the plaintiffs are alleged victims of sex crimes.
Complaints ask court to order changes
Both lawsuits allege the school district was negligent and seek unspecified damages to be established at trial, but they also go farther than a routine civil case and ask the court to force TPS to institute certain changes.
Under a court-ordered injunction requested by the plaintiffs, the district would have to, among a dozen things, implement a tiered alert system to notify parents, students and others of sexual abuse in the district, including within 24 hours of TPS opening any investigation into sexual misconduct involving staff, contractors or volunteers.
TPS also would have to immediately review substantiated cases of sexual misconduct by staff, contractors and others, according to the proposed injunction, and publish a public report of findings with names of perpetrators, their district assignments and the time period of those assignments. The lawsuits also seek to push the district to improve training, develop a sexual-exploitation prevention policy and establish two councils whose roles would be to address reported harassment, school- and district-wide practices and related issues important to students and parents.
Cochran acknowledged the pursuit of such injunctive relief was unique but noted that he previously forced two school districts into consent decrees in the early 2000s to address systemic race discrimination. The two plaintiffs in the current sex-abuse lawsuits each wanted to improve circumstances for future students, particularly girls, he said.
“(W)hen I realized during my investigation of these two lawsuits that the predatory sexual abuse apparent in the Tacoma School District was the product of a system-wide failure, rather than an anomalous sexual abuser, I suggested we should consider taking this unique approach to our request for relief to accomplish what they each wanted more than anything: to protect others from the decimation wrought by school sexual abuse,” Cochran said in a follow-up text message.
