Federal suit filed against school district

Father seeks $2.25M for alleged rape in Liberty

The Liberty Township School District and two of its employees are named as defendants in a $2.25 million lawsuit filed by the father of a female student, who alleges she was sexually assaulted in the restroom of W.S. Guy Junior High.

The lawsuit was filed Oct. 1 in U.S. Northern Ohio District Court, which alleges Title IX violations against Guy Principal Michael Palmer and another employee, David Walker, who was the in-school suspension supervisor at W.S. Guy.

"A parent should not think that rape is one of the fears you have when your 12-year-old goes off to school in the morning," said attorney David Engler, who represents the parents and filed the lawsuit with the federal court.

A call was made Tuesday afternoon to Liberty schools Superintendent Andy Tomiello, unsuccessfully seeking comment from the district.

The father filed suit on behalf of his daughter, who was enrolled as a junior high student and was excused from a study hall to look for a missing laptop computer on Nov. 8, 2021. The girl encountered another student and started talking with him. The male student suggested they go into a second-floor restroom to continue their conversation. They entered a teachers' restroom through an unlocked door.

Once in the restroom, the male student turned off the lights and used the flashlight from his cellphone to lock the door. He then started to kiss and sexually assault her, as she tried to unlock the door to get away, the lawsuit states.

The girl injured her back when the male student pulled her back to continue his assault, the lawsuit states.

A camera in the hallway captured some aspects of the girl's unsuccessful attempt to leave the restroom, and the document states the defendants intentionally erased the all the footage relevant to the incident.

After the alleged rape, the male student left the female on the floor crying, the lawsuit states

On Dec. 12, 2021, the girl reported the sexual assault to Palmer and Walker. Shortly after, the girl said she began to be bullied by friends of the male student, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit claims the defendants did not conduct any investigation into the girls' allegations and did not do anything to keep the two students separated.

The lawsuit claims because of the alleged rape and the subsequent bullying, the plaintiffs claim the girl received no support from the two Liberty school district employees, in the form of in-house counseling or professional support of any kind; and no discipline was imposed on the accused rapist, who was permitted to continue to attend school there.

"The conduct of the defendants in this case … constituted deliberate indifference to the sexual assault … and its aftermath and exacerbated a severe sexually hostile school environment for (the victim)."

This conduct prevented the girl from the "full range of educational opportunities that should have been available to her as a student of Guy Junior High School.

"There was definite action the school was compelled to take, and they did nothing. Their lack of any Title IX-mandated action resulted in terrible consequences and injury to the young girl," Engler said.

The lawsuit stated Title IX can be enforced against an education institution that receives federal funds and against employees and agents of these institutions.

Another count of the lawsuit alleges that the door of the teachers' second-floor restroom was defectively designed because it did not properly lock and the door opened into the room. This design inhibited the girl's ability to escape, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit is assigned to U.S. Judge Pamela A. Barker.