The Psychodynamics of School Sexual Abuse Investigations

School Administrator, Oct, 1994 by Mary Jo Mcgrath

State courts often award money damages in cases involving various administrators' duties, such as:

* Failure to supervise. An administrator owes a legal duty to the students to provide adequate supervision of school employees. This includes appropriate observation, investigation, correction of improper conduct, adequate documentation, and discipline. The administrator who supervises negligently risks liability both personally and for the school district.

* Failure to investigate. Failure to investigate or a perfunctory or inadequate investigation of rumors, reports, or complaints of sexual misconduct or of suspicious conduct by a school employee may constitute negligence by an administrator.

* Failure to train. Supervisors have a duty to adopt and enforce appropriate policies and to train teachers, guidance counselors, school nurses, and administrators to respond adequately to signs, reports, and complaints of sexual misconduct to protect students.

* Failure to hire carefully. Failure to use reasonable care in hiring practices, including inquiry and investigation of previous employment, may be negligent administration if it allows someone with a history of molesting, abuse, or sex offenses to harm students.

* Failure to warn others. In many states, legislation requires that school administrators report various types of conduct to state credentialing authorities. "Truth in recommendations" also is required by law in a few states, such as California and Florida. Failure to comply with these requirements may be considered negligence.

* Failure to report child sexual abuse. State law often requires that school officials report evidence of child abuse to child welfare officials or to law enforcement. Failure to report may result in legal liability.

Federal Violations

The Civil Rights Act of 1871 (42 U.S.C. [ss] 1983) holds a person acting on behalf of a school district liable for violation of any "rights, privileges, or immunities" secured by the federal constitution or laws. The courts have held that a student has a federal constitutional right to bodily integrity and that school administrators owe a duty to students to prevent sexual abuse by school employees.

In a recent case, the U.S. Court of Appeals held that a principal could be liable when he ignored a series of rumors and reports about a teacher who was having sexual intercourse with a student. The court said that supervisors are liable for "deliberate indifference" to constitutional violations by subordinates.

The court said that a supervisory school employee can be held personally liable for a subordinate's violation of a student's constitutional right to bodily integrity in physical sexual abuse cases if:

(1) The administrator learned of facts or a pattern of inappropriate sexual behavior by a subordinate pointing plainly toward the conclusion that the subordinate was abusing the student; and

(2) The administrator demonstrated "deliberate indifference" toward the constitutional rights of the student by failing to take action that was obviously necessary to prevent or stop the abuse; and