Ex-Pierce County teacher’s interactions raised red flags for years, suit claims
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- Ex-Evergreen Elementary teacher Jordan Henderson was convicted of molesting four students.
- A federal lawsuit claims that school administrators ignored warnings for years.
- The complaint alleges that Henderson’s interactions with girls on campus raised red flags.
Before former Pierce County elementary teacher Jordan Roy Henderson was accused and later convicted of inappropriately touching four students, school administrators failed to act on multiple reported concerns about his interactions with young girls on campus, according to a federal lawsuit.
Henderson, 36, was sentenced to 66 years to life in prison this month after a jury found him guilty in January of 12 counts of first-degree child molestation involving four girls in his fourth and/or fifth grade class at Evergreen Elementary School.
He was teaching at the school near Lakebay when the Sheriff’s Office began investigating his conduct in early 2024.
Between 2019 and 2024, multiple educators reported to school administrators their concerns about the appropriateness of Henderson’s interactions with young schoolgirls, including victims from his eventual criminal case, but little to nothing was done, according to the lawsuit.
The interactions were viewed by educators as “boundary violations” of personal space, the suit said.
“It is a wholesale failure from the entire administration at the district as well as Evergreen Elementary School, from the top down, that enabled and facilitated Jordan Henderson’s repeated (actions),” attorney Kevin Hastings said in an interview Monday.
Hastings is one of the lawyers representing the families of five students, including four victims from the criminal case, who filed the lawsuit May 14 in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington.
The complaint names as defendants the Peninsula School District, Evergreen Elementary principal Hugh Maxwell and Evergreen Elementary dean of students Christy Dalby. It alleges violations of Title IX and the students’ civil rights of due process and equal protection, claiming that the defendants showed “deliberate indifference” toward the plaintiffs’ safety and wellbeing.
“The safety and well-being of our students continues to be the foundation of our school district,” Michael Farmer, PSD’s chief of schools, said in a statement Monday. “We are aware of the recently filed lawsuit, and unfortunately, we cannot discuss active litigation.”
The lawsuit claims that Maxwell responded to concerns brought to him about Henderson’s behavior by simply speaking to Henderson. Maxwell and Dalby, as mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse, “failed to investigate, document, escalate, or otherwise report” Henderson’s behavior, according to the lawsuit.
“What we saw was, time and time again, when principal Maxwell is being told by multiple, separate educators…he didn’t do anything other than talk to Jordan,” Hastings said.
Hastings is among attorneys representing the plaintiffs in two similar and ongoing lawsuits lodged in Pierce County Superior Court. One suit was filed in 2024 on behalf of the four victims from the criminal case and the other suit was filed last month on behalf of the fifth student.
Both complaints allege the Peninsula School District failed to protect the children from harm, and accuse the district of negligence.
In court-filed answers to those lawsuits, the school district denied any wrongdoing. Neither Maxwell nor Dalby are named as defendants, but the district denied allegations in the complaints that Maxwell failed to appropriately address concerns, or acted unreasonably or inconsistently with school policy, when told about Henderson’s interactions and behaviors, court records show.
Hastings said the federal case was required to bring Title IX and Constitutional claims, noting that he believes the defendants’ alleged inaction meets the legal threshold of deliberate indifference — a higher standard than negligence.
Henderson’s interactions raise red flags
Between 2019 and 2024, Henderson was reported to administrators or observed by educators standing too close to a fifth grade student sitting on an outside railing; reading to a group of students on the floor while allowing a plaintiff to sit between his legs and lean back on him; and having a private conversation with a plaintiff for more than a half-hour in a hallway, according to the lawsuit.
Other alleged interactions similarly raised concerns about boundary invasion: A teacher reportedly witnessed multiple times during the 2023-24 school year when three plaintiffs hung on Henderson’s arm or jumped on his back in his classroom and in the hallways, the suit said.
Dalby allegedly told a counselor in September 2023 that one plaintiff, whose desk was placed against Henderson’s, stayed inside the classroom alone with Henderson during recess and that, in response, Maxwell had spoken to Henderson about it.
“Most, if not all” of the several interactions cited in the lawsuit were reported to administrators, including Maxwell and Dalby, according to the filing.
Multiple students complained to school administrators about Henderson’s behavior during the 2022-23 school year, but nothing was done, the suit said.
One plaintiff reported to Maxwell in February 2024 that Henderson touched her inappropriately, which prompted two district administrators to visit the school, the suit said. Three other plaintiffs provided brief, handwritten notes to the school, also saying Henderson inappropriately touched them, according to the suit.
“After lunch, the children went back to class,” the complaint said. “Some of the Plaintiffs had to go back to Henderson’s classroom despite the reports as described above.”
Henderson was asked “eventually” to leave the classroom and Maxwell and others soon after reported the matter to Child Protective Services and then law enforcement, following district guidance, according to the filing. Henderson, who was placed on administrative leave, was arrested in April 2024 following a Sheriff’s Office investigation.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages to be proven at trial, legal fees and other relief.
Hastings said the civil case is the result of attorneys’ efforts to understand what occurred, noting that the district never re-started an investigation it had deferred to authorities when law enforcement’s case was still active.
“That is not a reason, in our view, why the district shouldn’t be trying to figure this out,” Hastings said.
