A Nashville woman who says a teacher at Donelson Middle School raped her teenage son is suing Metro government and the school board.
The woman, whose name is not revealed in a lawsuit filed March 31, argues city government and the school board should be held responsible for the physical, mental and emotional pain and anguish her then-13-year-old son faced after Ronald Boykin, a then-37-year-old teacher, allegedly raped and degraded him. At the time, the hiring process at Metro public schools only included criminal background checks; school officials missed that Boykin was wanted at the time in Chattanooga for sexual abuse of children [1].
Along with raping him multiple times over a three-year period, the suit says Boykin gave the boy alcohol and drugs, spoke inappropriately to him on school premises, and threatened him and his mother if he told anyone what happened.
The woman and her son are asking for punitive and compensatory damages that could top out at $10 million.
This is the second lawsuit filed in a week against Metro government over the spring 2009 Boykin debacle. Last Monday, Jo Patterson, an African-American woman who worked as a director in the school district’s human resources department, sued the city for discrimination [2], alleging a white man equally culpable for Boykin’s hiring was merely suspended while she was told to resign or be fired.
Boykin’s sinister past was laid bare last March, after a routine records search during a traffic stop revealed he was wanted in Chattanooga for charges related to the sexual abuse of children. The school district fired him shortly thereafter.
Metro’s legal department does not comment on ongoing cases. The plaintiffs’ counsel, the firm Bednarz and Bednarz, could not be reached as of this writing.
Links:
[1] http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/schools-ax-employees-who-contributed-hiring-sex-offender
[2] http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/former-schools-employee-sues-city-over-discrimination