CHARLESTON – The mother of a former Horace Mann Middle School student says her daughter was sexually harassed by a fellow student.
Cassandra Flowers, as parent and next friend of K.F., filed her complaint February 9 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the Kanawha County Board of Education.
According to the complaint, K.F. was an eighth-grade student at HMMS during the 2021-22 school year. It says a classmate, identified only as C.C., repeatedly sexually harassed K.F. during the school year from November 2021 to January 3, 2022.
Michael Cary
| Courtesy photo
A similar complaint was filed last month, also accusing C.C. of sexually harassing another student.
This complaint says K.F. reported the sexual harassment and abuse to school staff on several occasions. She says C.C. touched K.F. on and around her breasts, on and around her buttocks and made inappropriate comments toward K.F.
Flowers says the board repeatedly subjected her daughter to sexual harassment, threats and even ridicule by C.C. even after the abuse had been reported by both her and her daughter.
Flowers accuses the board of negligence, negligent supervision and hiring, negligent infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.
She seeks compensatory, punitive, consequential and other damages for injuries, inconvenience and annoyance as well as pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
Flowers is being represented by Cary of Cary Law Office in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard.
Horace Mann Middle School also is the school where parents of at least four students allege special needs children were abused at the school.
And in 2020, a teacher at the school was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with an 11-year-old student.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-113
