Central Valley School District settles former student’s rape claim for $2.5 million

Central Valley School District has paid a $2.5 million settlement to a former Bowdish Middle School student who said she was raped by her teacher in sixth grade.

Emily Keenan, who is now 19, said she sued the district not for financial gain, but to make it clear that school district officials must be more vigilant in protecting students.

At the age of 11, the sexual assault by former teacher Anthony Cucinotti turned Keenan’s life upside down, she said.

“I lived in fear, was depressed all the time (and) acted out in many bad ways,” she said at a news conference Thursday. “I hated myself, and I hated school, even though I loved it through the fifth grade.”

Cucinotti was placed on paid administrative leave in April 2009 after several students reported that he snapped a girl’s bra strap in class. Keenan was that girl, but she did not report the rape allegations at the time.

“I was told I would be hurt if I ever told anyone, and I knew from his intense anger outbursts, that meant he would kill me,” she said. The Spokesman-Review doesn’t normally name victims of sexual assault, but Keenan wanted her voice heard, she said.

The assaults took place in Cucinotti’s classroom after school in the 2008-09 school year, said her attorney, Richard Eymann. When the teacher snapped her bra strap in class, Keenan was afraid that meant he planned to assault her again, Eymann said.

Keenan said she didn’t report the rapes until she was 14, when she “couldn’t keep it in anymore.” A lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2013.

Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Deputy Mark Gregory said the department was notified of the rape allegations in early 2012. Cucinotti, who resigned in 2009, had moved to California.

A detective in Spokane repeatedly tried to find and contact the teacher, and enlisted the help of a law enforcement agency in California but was unsuccessful, Gregory said. The case was declared inactive in 2013.

Several parents submitted declarations about Cucinotti’s behavior that were filed as part of Keenan’s lawsuit. One parent said she went to see the Bowdish principal, Dave Bouge, in 2007 after her daughter repeatedly complained about Cucinotti.

“Mr. Bouge did not seem concerned at all and said something about other girls making accusations all the time about Mr. Cucinotti but it was attention seeking and that if he followed up on every complaint about Mr. Cucinotti, he wouldn’t get anything done,” she wrote.

The parent said Bouge refused to remove her daughter from Cucinotti’s class; as a result she withdrew her daughter and home-schooled her for the rest of the year, she wrote.

“I have been informed that my meeting with Mr. Bouge is not reflected anywhere in the Bowdish Middle School or CVSD records,” she wrote. “That is appalling to me and leads me to believe that either the records have been destroyed or that Mr. Bouge is covering for Mr. Cucinotti.”

Bouge has since retired from the school district, district spokeswoman Marla Nunberg said.

Nunberg said she does not know why Bouge did not make a written record of the complaint. “I don’t know about what happened back then,” she said.

The Central Valley School District did not admit liability for Cucinotti’s alleged actions in the settlement announced Thursday.

“CVSD settled the lawsuit with the hope to allow the former student to obtain whatever help and counseling she may need to heal and move forward as the result of these claimed actions of Mr. Cucinotti, and to avoid the burden, time and cost to everyone of a lengthy trial,” the district said in a statement.

Keenan said she plans to donate $10,000 to Lutheran Family Services, which provides counseling to sexual assault victims, and wants to set up a foundation to help rape victims.

Cucinotti began working for Central Valley in 1992. Beginning in 1993, complaints filed by co-workers, students and parents spoke about his alleged angry outbursts and inappropriate behavior with female students.

The complaints said that Cucinotti once had a female student sitting on his lap, would frequently be alone in his classroom with girls and referred to some students as his “muffins.” Girls in his classrooms frequently reported that Cucinotti would look down their shirts and stare at their chests.

Over the years, numerous parents asked that their children be transferred out of Cucinotti’s classes.

Cucinotti received repeated verbal and written reprimands and was ordered to complete sexual harassment training and anger-management classes, but the complaints continued.

Cucinotti resigned in 2009 in exchange for a letter that verified his employment with the district. The letter said his “attendance was satisfactory” and that Cucinotti resigned “for personal reasons.”

Eymann said Cucinotti is living with a relative in California.

“We have no idea what he’s been doing, but we know he’s not teaching,” he said.

A spokesman from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction said Cucinotti’s teaching certificate lapsed in June 2011 because he did not complete continuing education requirements. This leaves open the possibility that Cucinotti could apply for a new certificate in Washington or another state.