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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Another former student sues Logan school board for sexual abuse

Logancourthouse

LOGAN – Another former student is suing the Logan County Board of Education after she claims she was sexually abused by a teacher

Ryan Waugh was also named as a defendant in the suit.

S.C. entered Logan High School as a freshman in Fall 2011 and was in Waugh’s freshman history class, where he started systematically grooming her for sexual abuse during her first year of high school, according to a complaint filed Feb. 13 in Logan Circuit Court.

S.C. claims by her junior year, Waugh was engaging in sexual intercourse with her on a regular basis and the board and its employees knew or should have known that Waugh would sexually molest and abuse students before it exposed S.C. to him.

The board and its employees knew or should have known that Waugh was abusing students in his trust and failed to stop or report the ongoing abuse, according to the suit.

S.C. claims many of Waugh’s sexual encounters with his students occurred at LHS and that one or more of the board’s employees provided the victims access to the school for the purpose of facilitating Waugh’s sexual abuse.

Waugh utilized S.C.’s participation in extracurricular activities to gain her trust and her parents’ trust, so that he could “groom” and sexually exploit her, according to the suit.

S.C. claims had the board acted on its actual and constructive knowledge of Waugh’s dangerous behavior, it could have prevented exposing S.C., and other students, to terrible acts of sexual misconduct. However, the board failed to do so.

In 2015, during the second semester of S.C.’s senior year, she attempted to distance herself from Waugh’s sexual abuse and , during that time, Waugh began to target another student, known as K.H., who was also on the softball team with S.C.

Waugh eventually engaged in illegal sexual intercourse with K.H. as well, which he freely admitted to S.C., according to the suit. Waugh presented the incident in such a way so as to emotionally harm S.C. and regain his control over her and he also acted in a prideful manner when discussing his sexual encounters with K.H. to S.C.

S.C. claims Waugh was arrested on 11 counts of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian on May 8, 2015, and he was also charged with one count of use of obscene material to seduce a minor. He pled guilty to two counts of sexual abuse and admitted to having sex with both girls and was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of 10 to 20 years for his crimes.

The board was negligent and breached its fiduciary duty when it recklessly and negligently exposed S.C. to Waugh, knowing that he was a dangerous sexual predator, according to the suit.

S.C. is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. She is being represented by Robert P. Lorea, Mary Pat Statler and Katherine E. Charonko of Bailey & Glasser.

Earlier this year, K.H. filed a similar lawsuit against the board and Waugh for the sexual abuse she endured.

Logan Circuit Court case number: 17-C-59

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