Cadet claimed abuse by Tacoma JROTC instructor. Now the district will pay undisclosed sum
Tacoma Public Schools has settled a lawsuit filed by a former Mount Tahoma High School student who alleged she was sexually harassed and physically assaulted by a long-time instructor in the school’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program.
The suit filed in October by an ex-cadet alleged a JROTC instructor, who resigned following a district investigation, in separate instances had inappropriately remarked on her JROTC uniform, made a sexually suggestive comment to her and aggressively grabbed her by the backpack in a school hallway.
The instructor denied wrongdoing. A TPS investigation determined there was probable cause to fire him, according to district records obtained by The News Tribune.
The purported harassment caused the student to quit the JROTC program, and her parents pulled her from school for a month, according to the suit. It claimed that the district failed to protect her from the alleged abuse, which reportedly occurred during her junior and senior years in 2021 and 2022.
TPS settled the case on June 3, according to Pierce County Superior Court records. The terms were not disclosed in court records.
The News Tribune asked the district multiple times since Friday for the settlement amount and offered an opportunity to comment on the resolution. Reached by phone Wednesday, spokesperson Tanisha Jumper attributed the delayed response to preoccupation with graduations. Jumper said she would attempt to provide the settlement terms Wednesday but did not.
The plaintiff, who’s identified in the filing by her initials to protect her anonymity, was thankful that the matter had been resolved before going to trial, according to her attorney, Tom Balerud, who said his client was continuing mental health treatment.
“She hopes one day to be a public school teacher at the high school level or ideally a district administrator,” Balerud said in a statement. “Her thinking is, if she can rise to a level high enough within a school system’s power structure, she’ll be able to hold wrongdoers accountable.”
Balerud declined to reveal the settlement terms.
The instructor, Galen House, was named throughout the lawsuit, but he was not a defendant. A district record shows that the student and her parents filed a police report, but House was not charged with a crime.
House denied the allegations against him and ever being alone with the student, according to a copy of a letter that summarized the district’s investigation into two claims against him. The correspondence, from district Superintendent Joshua Garcia to the instructor in January 2023, was obtained by The News Tribune in a public records request.
In a statement to the district following an interview for the investigation, House touted 20 years of “exemplary service” in the Army and not one complaint as a teacher at Mount Tahoma High, the letter shows. He suggested that the claims arose from his rejection of the student’s request to get out of her responsibilities as a company commander.
“[T]his is not in my character and (I) can only surmise this is a student that wanted out of class and the only way was to concoct a very damaging lie,” House wrote.
House did not return a message from The News Tribune left at a phone number found for him in a public database.
The investigation
The district investigated two claims against House.
TPS said House was accused of telling the then-cadet that he’d have to wait to have sex with a student until two years after their graduation, which the student took to mean was a reference to her. The lawsuit alleged that House had more pointedly remarked, in graphic terms, “it’s getting to be too hard for me having to wait to (have sex with) you.”
TPS also investigated whether House pursued the student down a hallway roughly a week later, put his hands on her shoulder and backpack, and temporarily restrained her movement. District policy prohibits isolation and restraint except in instances when it’s reasonably necessary to prevent an imminent likelihood of serious harm.
The lawsuit alleged House had belittled and taunted the student and yanked her backward.
The complaint accused the district of inaction after the student informed the school’s principal of the alleged sexual remark on the day it was claimed to have occurred, Oct. 25, 2022. House was placed on administrative leave on Nov. 3, 2022, the day after the hallway incident.
When asked about his understanding of the rules governing romantic or sexual relationships between TPS employees and former students, House told the district he believed the protocol required waiting two years after graduation to become involved with a student, the letter said. When asked about allegedly making the sexual remark, he laughed and denied it.
House said when he contacted the student in the hallway he simply had been trying to retrieve her JROTC uniform because she quit the program. He was responsible for the program’s uniforms and equipment. The student ignored him, and House said he had put his hand on her shoulder to try to get her to listen.
The district’s probe noted that the student said she told House during the interaction that she had already returned the uniform. When asked why he had touched the student and grabbed her backpack as she tried to move away from him, House replied: “I think I already answered that.”
Later in the interview, he expressed frustration about the allegations and described his feelings about the school’s environment, according to the district letter.
“The culture at Mt. T is one that the tail wags the dog. The students walk to their own rules,” he said. “As long as they aren’t too grievous of violation of the rules or violent, it’s laissez faire. They are allowed to ignore the directives of staff in the hallways.”
In the letter, Garcia wrote that there was sufficient probable cause to discharge House from his employment with the district, which began in 2002, based on information it received through the investigation.
The letter also served as a notice that House’s contract would not be renewed in August. Garcia wrote that he would recommend the school board approve a decision to terminate House’s employment during a February 2023 board meeting. House appealed the district’s determination, records show, but it’s unclear what came of it.
The school board accepted House’s resignation in August, Jumper previously told The News Tribune.
House had indicated he was already planning on retiring, according to the district letter.
This story was originally published June 13, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
