Due to allegations of sexual assault by a former employee, a former student at Lebanon High School is suing the school district for $10 million.
Jennifer Burton, a former employee of Lebanon High School, was found guilty in August of misdemeanor third-degree sexual assault, which is the basis for the case.
This came after she was arrested in February and the Albany Police Department conducted a month-long investigation during which several students claimed to have had intercourse with Burton when they were underage.
The case also listed Burton as a defendant, who was required to register as a sex offender and received a sentence of 45 days in jail and three years of supervised probation.
The complaint was brought in October in the Linn County Circuit Court by Portland-based lawyer Nicole Lemieux, who claims the district was careless in hiring Burton. Additionally, it charges the district with neglecting to look into her and defend her client, a former student at Lebanon High School, despite receiving reliable information that she was acting inappropriately.
District spokesperson Michelle Steinhebel stated in an email that the district was unable to comment on the issue because of the pending litigation.
Abuse and grooming
The lawsuit claims that while the former student was a middle school football player on a team with Burton’s kids, Burton started grooming him. The former student is identified by a pseudonym in the case.
The complaint claims that Burton and her husband were active members of the Lebanon High School football team’s booster club, where the student later played football. According to reports, she showed a special interest in him.
According to the complaint, this includes purposefully making fun of his appearance, stroking his arms, shoulders, and back, and flirting with him in the school halls and during football and booster club-related events.
According to the lawsuit, Burton added him as a friend on Facebook while he was a junior in 2018.
According to the lawsuit, Burton started sending unsolicited and indecent messages on Facebook and Snapchat, frequently leading the conversation to sexual subjects. Through Snapchat, the messages included movies and naked pictures of her and requested nude pictures of him in exchange.
The lawsuit claims that when the student was away from her family in late 2018, Burton set up a time to have intercourse with her while she was still a minor. The complaint claims that after picking him up in her Lexus, she took him to a remote area where they had intercourse.
According to the complaint, Burton then attempted to arrange further dates for the two to meet, but she lost interest and went on to her next victim due to scheduling issues and the student’s 18th birthday.
The lawsuit merely states that there are many more kids with similar stories, without mentioning the number of other students who were allegedly engaged with Burton. It also claims that the student was neither the first nor the final victim.
Allegations made against the district
Three former pupils who claimed to have had intercourse with Burton were identified by the Albany police during their inquiry; two of them claimed to have been underage at the time. The story detailed in the October complaint is similar to one of the former pupils named in a police affidavit.
An unidentified former student reportedly contacted a school board member to claim that he and another student had intercourse with Burton when they were under the age of 18, which reportedly triggered the police inquiry.
After receiving the tip, Superintendent Jennifer Meckley promptly placed Burton on leave and alerted the police, according to Susanne Stefani, the district’s former spokesperson at the time of Burton’s arrest. According to Stefani, the district worked with police enforcement.
Stefani added that before Burton’s arrest in February, district leadership was unaware of any charges against her.
The complaint presents an alternative narrative.
Although the complaint does not name specific individuals, it claims that district staff were aware of Burton’s favorable treatment and excessive attention to the former student and had the chance to stop the abuse but irrationally choose not to.
According to the lawsuit, the district and school were negligent in hiring a worker with a known history of grooming conduct and in ignoring clear signals, public displays, and indications that Burton’s interactions with students were wrong.
According to the lawsuit, the district assigned her to teach special education classes with even more vulnerable students and ignored reliable reports about her behavior. Additionally, it claims that the district did not provide its staff with training on how to identify and report child abuse.
In addition to seeking noneconomic damages of up to $722,000 for each instance in which the student was abused as a kid, the lawsuit alleges that Burton committed sexual abuse while operating within the parameters of her agency and position with the district.
Lastly, the lawsuit claims that the district is liable for fraud because it advertised its educational program as safe and helpful for kids while knowing that, under the school’s then-existing policies and practices, students were vulnerable to child sexual abuse by trusted staff members.
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