CHARLESTON – Two female Capitol High School students have sued the Kanawha County Board of Education claiming they were sexually and physically abused by male students, former students and guest instructors in a firefighting program.
The plaintiffs, identified only by their initials S.M. and M.S., filed the complaints in Kanawha Circuit Court against the school board. Both were under 18 at the time of the alleged incidents during the 2018-19 school year.
According to the complaints, the girls attended Carver Career and Technical Education Center as part of the Option Pathway program during the first half of the school day before returning to Capitol High for the second half of the day. They were the only female students enrolled in Thomas Allen Tucker’s Emergency and Firefighting Management Services program class.
Warner
As part of the class, the girls say Tucker had former students and local firefighters come to class to visit, interact with students and sometimes provide additional instruction. The girls say they were physically assaulted, sexually abused, sexually assaulted, harassed, intimidated and threatened by male students, former students and guest instructors.
“Male students were regularly permitted to put their hands on the persons of S.M. and M.S., intimidate and belittle them and, on occasion, would slap and/or drag them across the room,” the complaints state.
In her complaint, M.S. says she was given permission to stay at Carver all day once in November 2018. Both girls claim Tucker frequently left the classroom to run errands or to grab lunch. On this day, he warned M.S. to “watch out” for the former student visiting that day.
“The former student grabbed her person provocatively, tried to kiss her, asked what it would take for M.S. to agree to suck his penis, tried to pull her head into his pelvic area and stated that he ‘wanted to [expletive],” the complaint states, adding that M.S. managed to escape the former student’s advances.
M.S. says she told S.M. about the incident, and she says she told Tucker about it the next day with S.M. by her side.
“Tucker stopped her before she could finish the entirety of her report, said he ‘knew something like this would happen’ and dismissed her saying he would ‘take care of it,’” the complaint states, noting Tucker had reasonable cause to suspect M.S. had been sexually abused or assaulted and was required by law to report it to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources or other law enforcement officials.
In her complaint, S.M. says she was fondled and inappropriately touched by a male classmate, was choked by a male classmate until she lost consciousness and her nose began to bleed and was slapped and dragged by the ankle across the classroom by a male classmate so hard handprints were left on her ankle.
In February 2019, both girls document an incident when a visiting firefighter took them into an area out of view from others students, made sexual advances toward them, exposed his penis to them and tried to force them to touch his penis. When they refused, he said he would let them go for a kiss. S.M. says she kissed the unnamed firefighter in exchange for their release. The girls say they feared reporting the incident, but S.M. says she experienced severe emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment over the incident.
M.S. says she confided in her boyfriend about the incident, and he told her mother. Her mother told the mother of S.M., and she contacted Carver principal Lisa Dorsey. When Dorsey talked to Tucker, the complaint says he told her about the November 2018 incident for the first time. That led to Tucker being suspended with pay pending an investigation.
Following that, the other students blamed S.M. and M.S. for Tucker’s absence. S.M. was threatened, intimidated, called names and retaliated against. She dropped out of the program, causing her to not obtain her certification and costing her high school credits that forced her to attend classes beyond her original graduation date.
The girls accuse the board of negligent conduct and vicarious liability. They claim personal injury and damages including bodily injury, permanent psychological injuries, past and future medical and psychological bills, past and future pain and suffering and mental anguish, past and future loss of enjoyment of life, past and future humiliation, embarrassment, indignity and shame as well as diminished earning capacity and future lost wages.
They seek compensatory damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs, expenses and other relief.
They are being represented by Robert B. Warner of Andrew D. Byrd of Warner Law Offices in Charleston. For now, Circuit Judge Charles King is handling the case of S.M., and Circuit Judge Tera Salango is handling the case of M.S.
Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers 20-C-956 (S.M.) and 20-C-957 (M.S.)