Saturday, August 26, 2017

Attorney says ‘teachers and coaches having sex with students has run rampant in Oklahoma’

"A mother alleges in a civil rights lawsuit that Western Heights Public Schools failed to 'properly investigate and report claims of sexual misconduct' after her developmentally disabled daughter was victimized by a teacher," The Oklahoman reports.
The federal lawsuit filed this month in Oklahoma City also alleges the school district created a "hostile educational environment" in which the daughter was subjected to sexual harassment and retaliation. ... 
"The school district has absolutely failed my daughter and they failed my family," the mother, a former Western Heights district employee, told The Oklahoman on Friday. "I trusted them with everything I had and this was going on under their nose. ... 
The lawsuit alleges "a pattern of inappropriate conduct" by the Western Heights district and refers to "at least five former coaches and teachers (having) been charged, some sentenced, for sexual contact with students." ... 
"It's time that the situation at Western Heights be revealed for what it is — an atmosphere where coaches and teachers have been allowed to have sex with their students," said Cameron Spradling, the attorney representing the mother. 
"That has to stop at Western Heights, and it has to stop at all other schools in Oklahoma. No one has any doubt that teachers and coaches having sex with students has run rampant in Oklahoma."
Sadly, it's not just the grown-ups. "Based on what I heard from my constituents," writes former state Rep. Rebecca Hamilton (D-Oklahoma City), "sexual harassment of girls in our public schools is close to being pro forma. ...Your daughter has a much better chance of growing up to be a strong, independent young woman if she can skip this abuse during her formative years."

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