Education
Teacher Raped By Student Could Get $3 Million
Library_entrance,_CUNY_School_of_Law | Circa February 2018 | By Ohmyerica [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
A teacher raped by a student in September 2014 could get $3 million after a Florida school district failed to inform the teacher about the student’s troubled history.
The School Board of Miami-Dade County paid $200,000 to the teacher, identified as Jane Doe, as part of a $3 million settlement deal for the 2016 civil lawsuit. The district is seeking approval to pay the rest as government organizations are required to have legislative permission to pay anything that is more than $200,000 in damages. The school district’s insurer paid $1.5 million, the Miami New Times reported Wednesday.
Broward County Democratic state Sen. Perry Thurston filed a bill on Dec. 13 so the school district could pay $1.3 million if passed.
Doe was originally hired to work with elementary and middle school deaf students in the district in 2012, according to the Miami New Times. She was assigned to teach students with behavior and emotional disorders at South Dade Senior High School in August 2014, even though she did not have the license or self-defense training needed to handle such students.
She was slammed to the ground and choked until she was unconscious by then 18-year-old Victor Nash at the high school on Sept. 19, 2014, according to the bill. Nash threw away Doe’s cellphone, took her car keys and drove Doe’s car off campus after raping her.
Nash, now 22, was previously arrested in June 2013 for making written threats to kill or cause harm, but was deemed mentally incompetent to attend his trial. This information was not told to Doe, according to the Miami New Times.
“The school board failed to take any steps to protect its students, faculty, and staff over whom it had authority and control, from Victor Nash, and other violent and unstable students,” the complaint said, Miami New Times reported. “The school board documented the prior dangerous and confrontational conduct by Victor Nash to a school administrator, but failed to warn Jane Doe and others of his dangerous propensities and mental instability.”
Doe lost her virginity, has “severe depression,” and lives in “constant fear” as a result of the rape, according to the bill. She also “suffered loss of earnings and a loss of ability to earn money in the future.”
It is unclear whether Doe is still teaching.
Police said at the time that Nash confessed during questioning, CBS Miami reported on Sept. 22, 2014.
Nash was sentenced to 25 years in prison after he was adjudicated guilty of attempted murder, sexual battery on a physically helpless victim, strong-arm robbery and grand theft auto, according to the Miami New Times.
The high school was in south Florida’s top 10 schools for reported assaults, fights, vandalism and theft in the 2012-2013 academic year. Nearly 120 fights were also reported at the school in the 2013-2014 year, making it one of the worst schools in the district, according to Thurston’s bill.
Thurston and the members of the School Board of Miami-Dade County did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Miami-Dade County Public Schools could not respond due to offices being closed for winter break.
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