HUNTINGTON -- The parents of three children are suing Safety Town and the Cabell County Board of Education after they claim their daughters were molested by a Safety Town employee.
The employee, Harvey Maynard, was also named as a defendant in the suit.
During 2009 and 2010, the Cabell County Board of Education authorized and approved all field trips of the children to Safety Town, according to a complaint filed June 15 in Cabell Circuit Court.
The parents, Todd and Kelli Mullens; Ikie and Tammy Light; and Charles and Melanie Chapman, claim while their daughters were at Safety Town, Maynard would separate and segregate the children from the direct vision of the chaperone teachers and would ensure that no one was able to see his conduct.
Maynard would touch the plaintiffs' daughters on the outside of their clothing on their breasts and would also do so on the inside of their shirts against their bare breasts, according to the suit.
The parents claim when their daughters told them what happened, they then reported the conduct to the school principals.
Despite the individual complaints, the Cabell County Board of Education continued to take classes of students to Safety Town, thus providing Maynard with "new opportunities to molest and fondle female infants," according to the suit.
The parents claim the defendants disregarded their complaints.
The parents are seeking compensatory and punitive damages with pre- and post-judgment interest. They are being represented by David O. Moye and Lisa M. Moye.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Paul T. Farrell.
Cabell Circuit Court case number: 11-C-409
Parents sue Safety Town for alleged molestation
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