Tacoma school district investigated JROTC complaint. Instructor resigned, ex-cadet sued
A former student in the Mount Tahoma High School Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program alleges that she was sexually harassed and physically assaulted by a long-time instructor who resigned in August.
The former cadet sued Tacoma Public Schools in Pierce County Superior Court on Oct. 31, accusing district officials of failing to protect her from the alleged abuse during her junior and senior years in 2021 and 2022, including after she reported to her school’s principal that her decision to quit the JROTC program was prompted by her instructor’s purported actions.
In a statement, Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Tanisha Jumper said that the school board in August accepted the resignation of the instructor, Galen House, who’d been hired in 2002, following an investigation.
“We received a report of an inappropriate conversation between a JROTC Instructor and a student, and a report of an inappropriate restraint on the shoulder,” Jumper said in an email, in response to an inquiry seeking comment on allegations in the lawsuit. “We investigated the report. The employee resigned.”
The statement didn’t disclose what the district’s investigation found, and Jumper said she couldn’t provide additional information due to pending litigation. Attempts by The News Tribune to reach House for comment were unsuccessful.
House hasn’t been charged with a crime, court records show, nor was he named as a defendant in the suit.
But the legal complaint centered around House’s alleged behavior. It claimed he commented inappropriately on the plaintiff’s JROTC uniform, told her that he was having a difficult time waiting to have sex with her and offered a calendar date for when they’d have sex, leaving her “terrified.”
The plaintiff decided to quit the program, according to the legal filing.
A week after the plaintiff divulged her experience and reasons for leaving the program to the school’s principal, House allegedly aggressively approached the plaintiff in a school hallway, belittled and taunted her in front of friends, grabbed her by the backpack and yanked her backward, according to the lawsuit. The purported incident was captured on two school cameras, the lawsuit said.
The former student, who’s identified in court records only by her initials to protect her anonymity, was pulled from school by her parents for a month following the encounter, but later returned and did what she needed to do to graduate, the suit said.
The complaint accused the school district of negligence, gender discrimination and statutory failure to report the concerns she’d expressed to her principal as required by Washington state law. It said the plaintiff expected the principal would call police so that authorities could speak to others in the JROTC program and they could corroborate her story, but no action was taken.
The JROTC program, offered by four branches of the U.S. military and taught by retired military personnel, “prepares high school students for leadership roles while making them aware of their rights, responsibilities and privileges as American citizens,” according to the Department of Defense.
The lawsuit claimed the plaintiff, who had set sights on using the program to become an Air Force officer and secure a free college education, is in counseling for emotional pain stemming from the ordeal.
“We’re a very pro-military community, so there is a degree of implicit trust that a parent would have with their child in that program, so it’s very easy for them to abuse the command authority that you would have in a traditional military environment to manipulate a 16-year-old girl,” said attorney Thomas Balerud, who’s representing the ex-student. “It’s kind of a cloistered environment where you’re to respect and not question the authority you’re under.”
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages to be established at trial and to recoup legal fees.
