By YachatsNews
A former Waldport High School student is suing the Lincoln County School District for $2.5 million alleging school staff did little to nothing to stop a boy’s sexual harassment of her during three years at the school.
The lawsuit was filed Feb. 9 by two Portland attorneys for the now 18-year-old girl, identified in the suit by a pseudonym. On Feb. 12, Lincoln County Circuit Judge Marcia Buckley granted her attorney’s motion to proceed using the pseudonym because school officials know her identity.
The boy mentioned in the lawsuit was referred to only as “John Doe.”
Attorneys for the girl sent a notice to the district in November 2022 – during the girl’s junior year – that she intended to sue. The attorneys are Erin Greenawald and Sean Riddell, both former Oregon Department of Justice attorneys now in private practice.
A spokeswoman for the school district declined to comment, saying it has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
The lawsuit alleges the boy started harassing the girl in 2021 when classes resumed after more than a year of school building closures because of the Covid pandemic. The harassment, the lawsuit said, included inappropriate sexual comments, commenting to others about her clothes, asking her to kiss him, and attempting to touch her thigh.
The lawsuit said the girl reported the incidents to administrators and staff during the 2020-21 school year, but claimed no one initiated sexual harassment or Title 9 investigations as required by district policies.
The lawsuit said the boy’s harassment worsened during the 2021-22 school year. The girl again reported incidents to school staff, the lawsuit said, but there were no investigations.
The lawsuit said the girl “ended her junior year fearful that John Doe would continue sexually harassing her during her senior year.” That fall at the start of her senior year, lawsuit said, the two were put in the same physical education class where the harassment continued.
“John Doe’s sexual harassment of plaintiff was so open and obvious that other students openly commented and joked about his conduct in front of the district’s agents and employees,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said the girl reported the harassment to principal Amy Skirvin who “assured plaintiff that John Doe’s abuse would come to a stop.” Despite that, the lawsuit said, the harassment “continued without pause” including an incident that October when the boy simulated sexual intercourse with the girl during an outdoor P.E. class.
The lawsuit said the girl again reported the harassment to Skirvin, but claimed the principal did not initiate sexual harassment or Title 9 investigations and did not inform the girl of the district’s policies on harassment.
The lawsuit accuses the district of subjecting the girl to a hostile school environment by failing to train staff on their responsibilities in regard to the district’s sexual harassment policies, by not enforcing them, by not educating students on the policies and failing to investigate the girl’s complaints and “John Doe’s open and obvious sexual harassment …”
The lawsuit seeks $100,000 for economic damages, $150,000 for past and future medical/counseling costs and $2 million in non-economic damages.