Suit Can Proceed Against School District

Sat., Feb. 21, 1998

From Staff And Wire Reports

A judge has allowed a lawsuit to go forward against the Richland School District and the state over an alleged sexual assault at Hanford High School in 1994.

Benton County Superior Court Judge Phil Raekes refused Thursday to dismiss the case, but he did throw out a claim that the victim’s civil rights were violated intentionally.

The lawsuit by Charles and Carol Allen and their daughter, Tami, accuses the school district and the state of negligence and of failing to adequately supervise or control a male student who had been in the custody of the state’s juvenile prison division.

The 16-year-old boy had a history of assault and drug crimes and had been living in the Twin Rivers group home, a juvenile correctional center in Richland, the family claims.

The Allens say parents were not notified that juvenile offenders from the group home attended Hanford High, and they say there were no obvious extra security measures for those teens.

On Thursday, Raekes said it is up to a jury to decide if school and state officials failed to exercise due care in allowing the offender to attend Hanford without adequate supervision and monitoring.

The boy never was charged in the assault and is not named as a defendant in the 1996 lawsuit.

Since the attack, the Washington Legislature has passed a law requiring juvenile authorities to alert school principals when students are involved in certain crimes involving violence, sex or substance abuse.

The same law requires principals to share the information with teachers and other personnel who might supervise the student.

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