14 yr old rape bait

[Devils Advocate]

Link to the Stink

Quote:The 14-year-old girl who was raped during a botched sting operation in a middle school bathroom in north Alabama five years ago can sue the Madison County school board in federal court for deliberate indifference to the educational opportunities of young girls.

"These are highly unique and extreme facts that will hopefully never again be repeated," wrote the appeals judges in a lengthy, complicated ruling on exactly who is liable for sending an eighth-grade girl to catch a serial sexual harasser in the act.

A teachers aide hatched the sting operation to catch the boy in the act. But teachers arrived too late. Medical records show the girl was anally raped. She withdrew from Sparkman Middle and the boy returned after a stint at the alternative school.

The resulting lawsuit against the board was thrown out by the lower court, and brought back to life today by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"This is a unique case because the administrators effectively participated in (the boy's) sexual harassment by setting (Jane) Doe up in a rape-bait scheme involving (the boy) in order to 'catch him in the act,'" found the appeals court.

Today's ruling parsed two separate appeals and at least six different claims that had been argued before the court in Atlanta on May 19.  

In the end, the court held the girl can continue to sue the Madison County school board, principal Ronnie Blair, former assistant principal Jeanne Dunaway and the former teacher's aide June Simpson in federal court.

The court did clear one assistant principal, Teresa Terrell. "Unlike Assistant Principal Dunaway and Teacher's Aide Simpson, there is no evidence Terrell acquiesced to or ratified the plan to use Doe as rape bait," wrote the court.

As for the board itself and the claims under the federal Title IX, the court writes that a jury could find unreasonable and even "patently odious" acts in regard to school policy, including the shredding of student discipline records, the assigning of disciplined students to unmonitored janitorial duty, the policy of having to catch students in the act of sexual harassment, and the lack of policy changes after this incident.

The Court notes that "the Board's knowledge of (the boy's) sexual harassment, its catch in the act policy, its orchestration of a sting operation using Doe as bait for (the boy's) sexual activities, and its failure to help Doe in any way was patently odious."

"A jury could find that despite these policies' glaring inadequacies...Blair did virtually nothing in response."
The Court cites poorly kept electronic records that prevented the board from tracking a serial offender. The Court, in particular, finds problematic the handling of the situation after the rape, from not changing the record-keeping practices to allowing the boy to return to school to not keeping records of the investigation.

"In addition, the Board made only one policy change: it discontinued a one-day sexual harassment training workshop for administrators at the Madison County Administrator Academy," reads the ruling. "Although Principal Blair believes the Board did not need to change any policies because 'we did as good a job I think as you could do under the circumstances,' a reasonable jury could disagree."

But the court rejected the more broad constitutional claims against the school board, claims involving the Equal Protection Clause, "which confers a federal constitutional right to be free from sex."

The court reasoned: "The Board could not have foreseen a rape-bait scheme that required an eighth-grade student to voluntarily subject herself to sexual harassment as a 'known or obvious consequence' of the 'catch in the act' policy or its training policies."

[What witnesses say happened, in their own words]

However, the appeals court took a different position on those same claims in regard to the individual employees. The ruling reversed the lower court and allowed constitutional claims to proceed against Blair and Dunaway, in part, the court held "because 'every objectively reasonable government official facing the circumstances' would know this irresponsible plan violated the Equal Protection Clause."

Blair did not know about the sting beforehand. But the Court writes: "The evidence shows Blair crafted and implemented Sparkman's sexual harassment and recordkeeping policies. A jury could find that despite these policies' glaring inadequacies that were exposed by (the boy's) rape of Doe, Blair did virtually nothing in response."

The ruling also addressed various claims under state law. The district judge, while throwing out all federal claims, had allowed negligence and wantoness claims to proceed against Dunaway and Simpson.

Dunaway had appealed this part of the ruling, arguing she had immunity as an agent of the state. The girl also appealed, arguing she should be able to sue Blair under state claims.

The appeals court today largely upheld those rulings. The court found that Blair did not act in self-interest and retains qualified immunity as a state agent.

But the court held that Dunaway cannot claim immunity from state claims because she "exceeded her authority by ratifying the rape-bait scheme rather than reporting CJC's sexual harassment to Principal Blair in accordance with the Policy Manual..."

But the court also touches on a key disagreement of fact, as it recounts the botched sting.

In January of 2010, teacher's aide Simpson told Blair about a rumor involving the same boy having sex in the school bathroom with another girl. Blair had investigated but said he lacked proof. Simpson said Blair told her he needed to catch students in the act. The boy was then accused of touching another girl's thigh on Jan. 13 and Blair placed the boy on janitorial duty.

The boy then began to proposition the girl for sex and had continued to do so until she complained to Simpson. On Jan. 22, Simpson suggested the sting.

From today's ruling: "Simpson said 'do you want to get (the boy)' in trouble and Doe said 'yes.' Simpson said, 'Do you want to—you have to go meet him so that we could set him up and get him caught because he's been doing this for a while.' Doe responded that she 'didn't want to go,' and walked to the locker room. Doe and her friend then sat in the locker room a few minutes and conversed. A few minutes later, Doe approached Simpson again and 'told her I would do it.' Simpson asked if Doe was 'sure,' and Doe said yes."

She took the girl to the assistant principal's office. Dunaway was on the phone with her husband.

Here they disagree. Simpson says she told Dunaway the plan and that Dunaway showed her pictures of floor tile on her cell phone. Dunaway says that Simpson did not speak to her, but stood in her office with her back to Dunaway while Dunaway was busy.

The girl withdrew from Sparkman Middle on March 26, two months after the sting, and moved to North Carolina. She is an adult now and the court allowed her to drop her father's name from the suit and proceed as Jane Doe.

Simpson no longer works for the system. She did not send an attorney to speak for her during the hearing in May before the appeals court. Dunaway became an elementary school principal and has since been moved to the central office.

The ruling notes: "The medical records from the examination were consistent with anal rape...For reasons undisclosed by the record, the Madison County District Attorney's Office never filed charges against (the boy)."