Squalicum student sought $1 million from school district after reporting assaults

The female former Squalicum High School student suing Bellingham Public Schools for its alleged mishandling of her sexual assault reports previously filed a claim for damages seeking $1 million from the school district.

The student filed a tort claim with the district April 15 seeking $1 million, arguing that she suffered psychological and physical injuries, emotional distress and deprivation of her civil liberties after she brought her sexual assaults to the attention of three school administrators, according to public records obtained by The Bellingham Herald.

A claim for damages must be filed with the local governmental entity, which includes school districts, accused of tortious conduct prior to the filing of a formal lawsuit, according to state law.

The student has since filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the school district, alleging that the district failed her and showed a pattern of “extreme and outrageous conduct” after she reported the assaults, violating her Title IX rights.

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal funding, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

As of Monday, Jan. 9, Bellingham Public Schools has yet to file a response to the student’s Dec. 7 lawsuit, according to federal court records.

When asked for comment for this story, Bellingham Public Schools spokesperson Jackie Brawley said “as we stated in our December 14 message to families, this matter is being litigated and we cannot compromise these legal processes, so we are limited in what we can share.”

Tort claim filed

In the 16-year-old student’s claim for damages filed by her attorney in April, the student said that while she was attending Squalicum High School, a 15-year-old male student repeatedly sexually assaulted her beginning in October 2021, according to the public records obtained by The Herald.

The female student reported the male student would grab her waist, touch intimate parts of her body, rub against her, molest her, ask her to date him and attempt to coerce her to perform oral sex on him, “generally humiliating and degrading her in private, and in front of other students,” the public records state.

The male student is accused of the same conduct in the female’s federal civil rights lawsuit.

On Jan. 14 of last year, the female student reported the assaults to Jeremy Louzao, who was then dean of students at Squalicum High School.

His response, according to the public records and the federal lawsuit, was “What do you want me to do about it?”.

Louzao also allegedly promised the female student that he would get the male student to comply with an internal school no-contact order. He never did so, and the male student violated the no-contact order four days later on Jan. 18, according to the records and previous Herald reporting.

A day prior, on Jan. 17, the female student reported the sexual assaults to Meghan Dunham, who was also dean of students at the high school at that time. Dunham did nothing, the records state.

The same day, the female student also reported the assaults to Chimere Hackney, who was then an assistant principal at the high school. Hackney allegedly forced the female student to participate in a “restorative circle” with the male student accused of assaulting her. The two students were left alone in a room together as part of the “restorative circle” process, the public records state.

Hackney then allegedly asked the female student “Are you guys OK now?” and told her to “shake hands and you’ll be fine,” the records show.

Louzao, Dunham and Hackney never reported the student’s sexual assault allegations to law enforcement or the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families. Because all three are mandatory reporters, they are required by law to report any suspected abuse or neglect of a child to either law enforcement or the state child welfare agency.

More than two weeks later, the female student reported the sexual assaults directly to the Bellingham Police Department.

The male student has since been charged with one count of indecent liberties by forcible compulsion, which is a felony, in Whatcom County Juvenile Court, a division of Whatcom County Superior Court. He is also facing two other criminal court cases for unrelated conduct.

The female student left Squalicum because of the abuse, the public records state, and now attends a different high school.

Citations, reassignments

Louzao, Dunham and Hackney were each criminally cited Dec. 7 with one count of failure to report, a gross misdemeanor, in Whatcom County District Court. They all have had their attorneys issue not guilty pleas on their behalf and are expected to appear in court later this month.

At the time of their citations, Louzao and Dunham were serving as assistant principals at Squalicum, while Hackney was an assistant principal at Bellingham High School.

As of Jan. 3, all three have been reassigned to the school district’s Department of Teaching and Learning, where they will support district-level administrative work, The Herald previously reported.

The school district has yet to decide whether the staffing changes will be made permanent, and does not have a timeline for when that decision will be made by.

When asked whether Bellingham Public Schools took any action or attempted to resolve the female student’s claim for damages filed in April, Brawley told The Herald “we’re declining to discuss the specifics of this litigation, including the status of any attempts to resolve the claim.”

Brawley said if a school district receives a tort claim, the claim is referred to legal counsel representing the district. That process was followed for this claim, she said.

When asked by The Herald whether they assisted or handled the school district’s legal response to the student’s tort claim, or whether any negotiations took place to attempt to settle the claim prior to the filing of the student’s federal lawsuit, Bret Simmons, one of the district’s attorneys for the federal lawsuit, declined to answer and referred The Herald to the district’s answers to those questions.

Resources

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault, you can contact the following local resources for free, confidential support:

Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Services: 24-hour Help Line: 360-715-1563, Email: info@dvsas.org.

Lummi Victims of Crime: 360-312-2015.

Tl’ils Ta’á’altha Victims of Crime: 360-325-3310 or nooksacktribe.org/departments/youth-family-services/tlils-taaaltha-victims-of-crime-program/

Bellingham Police: You can call anonymously at 360-778-8611, or go online at cob.org/tips.

WWU Survivor Advocacy Services at the Counseling & Wellness Center: 360-650-7982 or https://cwc.wwu.edu/survivorservices.

Brigid Collins Family Support Center: 360-734-4616, brigidcollins.org.

This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 5:00 AM.

Denver Pratt

The Bellingham Herald

360-715-2236

Reporter Denver Pratt joined The Bellingham Herald in 2017 and covers courts and criminal and social justice. She has worked in Montana, Florida and Virginia. She lives in Alger, Wash.