Court dismisses former student's sexual abuse lawsuit

More than two years after graduating, a student sued her former school district, alleging that she had been sexually abused by her coach while attending high school. In the lawsuit, she claimed that the district and several school officials had covered up the abuse. The court dismissed her lawsuit on the grounds that it had been filed too late, and she appealed to the court of appeals.

The student attended high school in the district from fall 2016 to spring 2020. In 2016, a coach at the school began emotionally and sexually abusing her, and the student alleged that the abuse continued until she graduated in May 2020.

In 2018, the student reported the sexual abuse to the school principal and the superintendent. However, instead of reporting the complaint to law enforcement, the superintendent allegedly told the student, "If this gets out, you will be expelled." The superintendent told the student that if she said anything, her family would be affected and embarrassed. The principal allegedly told her not to speak to anyone about it ever again. The student alleged that he threatened that if she did, her reputation would be ruined, and it would "blackball" her from college.

On June 23, 2022, the coach was named coach of the year. In response, public outcry erupted on social media as several former female students claimed that he had sexually abused them. The subsequent law enforcement investigation revealed that the sexual abuse had been reported to school officials on four specific occasions since 2014, including the student's report. The coach had been placed on administrative leave after the report in 2014, but he continued to have access to female students until 2022. None of the school officials reported the coach's conduct or the complaints to law enforcement or to the Department of Family and Protective Services. A former school board member stated that many people in the school district knew that the coach had sexual contact with underage female students as well as adulterous relationships with female staff members. On June 27, a few days after the public outcry, the coach committed suicide.

The student sued the school district and school officials regarding their failure to act on her report and for concealing the coach's sexual abuse under Title IX, a federal law that covers a teacher's sexual abuse or harassment of a student. A school district may be held liable for the sexual harassment if it had actual knowledge of the harassment and was deliberately indifferent. 

In Texas, the statute of limitations for such a claim is two years. Under federal law, the two year time period to file a lawsuit begins the moment the victim becomes aware that she has suffered an injury or has sufficient information to know that she has been injured. In Texas, if that time period begins while the victim is a minor, the statute of limitations does not start until the victim turns 18.

In this case, the court of appeals determined that the time period to file the lawsuit began when the student reported the abuse in 2018. She knew at that time that she had been abused, that her abuser was a teacher, that she had reported the abuse to school officials, and that the school district was failing or refusing to stop the abuse. She turned 18 in February 2020 and graduated from high school in May 2020. 

According to the courts, she needed to file her lawsuit no later than May 2022. However, she did not file her lawsuit until April 2023, after the deadline had passed. Therefore, the court of appeals determined that "despite the tragic facts" that formed the basis of the claim, the lawsuit must be dismissed.