Riverside School District failed to protect a minor sexual assault victim and subjected her to more harm by allowing her assailant to attend school and school-sponsored functions with her, a federal lawsuit alleges.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court on the Riverside Junior/Senior High School student’s behalf by her mother, maintains the school district was obligated under Pennsylvania law to ensure the girl’s assailant was not educated in the same building.
The Times-Tribune does not identify victims of sexual assault.
In addition to the district, the complaint names the school board, Superintendent Paul Brennan, principal Christopher Lazor and former principal Robert Presley as defendants. The juvenile assailant’s parents are also named.
According to the lawsuit, the victim was sexually assaulted in January 2021, by a male Riverside student, also a minor. The assault happened outside of the school setting, in Luzerne County.
The boy, who is not identified, was subsequently adjudicated delinquent of sexual assault in Luzerne County on Aug. 30, 2021, the suit said.
The mother contacted the district while the matter against the juvenile was pending but was told nothing could be done to protect the victim from the assailant while in school, the suit alleged.
After the adjudication, and despite repeated objections and concerns raised by the mother, the assailant was permitted to attend school with the victim and continued to harass, threaten and intimidate her during school hours and while on school property, the suit said.
In one instance, the victim attended a school dance in 2022, the suit said. She arrived early with her friends and sat at a remote table to create a “safe haven” only to have her assailant and his friends sit at a table about six feet away.
The male student and his friends ridiculed and threatened the victim, resulting in her spending the majority of her night crying in the girls’ restroom, according to the complaint.
In another incident after the dance, the assailant passed the victim in a school hallway and shouted mockingly, “Please move. Please move,” the suit said.
The complaint said district officials denied knowledge of the assailant’s sexual assault adjudication when the mother sought a meeting in February 2022, about the ongoing issues but indicated again they could not do anything to protect the victim during school hours.
The district and its officials had an “affirmative duty” under Pennsylvania’s Act 110 to protect the victim by expelling, transferring or reassigning the male student, the suit said.
As a result of their actions and inactions, the victim suffered and continues to suffer a series of psychological and physical maladies, including self-mutilation, anxiety, depression and panic attacks, it alleges.
The lawsuit seeks damages on multiple counts, including discrimination under federal Title IX, negligence, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress.