Woman sexually victimized by teacher in ’15 sues him, district

A woman who was sexually victimized by a South Allegheny middle school teacher seven years ago when she was 12 has sued him, the district and two administrators in federal court on civil rights counts, including negligence and assault.

The woman identifies herself in the complaint. The Post-Gazette doesn’t name victims of sex crimes.

The defendants are the former teacher, Cole McLaughlin, who was prosecuted for his crimes, along with Lisa Duval, then the principal of the middle school and now the superintendent, and Hal Minford, the vice principal at the time. The district is also a defendant.

McLaughlin, a 23-year-old social studies teacher at the time, told detectives that he kissed the girl and hugged her. Her father went to police after he discovered messages on her phone in which McLaughlin expressed his sexual desire for her, according to court records in the criminal case.

The pair had communicated through Snapchat and Trivia Crack.

The lawsuit accuses McLaughlin of assault and battery and the district administrators of negligence in not stopping him from abusing her and other children at the school.

The relationship between McLaughlin and the girl began with email exchanges in 2014 and progressed to sexual activity.

According to the suit, Mr. Minford called the girl’s father and told him he’d overheard people in the hallways saying that the girl was McLaughlin’s “girlfriend.” Mr. Minford and the father were friends.

According to the complaint, Mr. Minford told the father that the situation would be taken care of, but it never was.

Mr. Minford “assured Mr. [name redacted] that, should further contact occur, Defendant McLaughlin would be fired,” the suit says. “However, to the contrary, Defendant Minford took no action.”

The suit also says Mr. Minford complained to the father that Lisa Duval, the principal, had “lost control” of the students and was just trying to get through the year without taking action against McLaughlin so she could maintain her good relationship with the teachers’ union.

Mr. Minford also told the father that he’d found McLaughlin alone in his classroom with another minor and that he had “scolded” the young teacher. The parents said they later learned that McLaughlin often had minors in his classroom alone after school hours.

The situation escalated when, one night in April 2015, the girl’s grandmother heard her talking to McLaughlin on the phone at 10 p.m. Her parents checked her phone and found texts from McLaughlin in which he described molesting her and saying he loved her “insanely.”

The girl’s mother then sent a message to McLaughlin posing as the girl. When he responded, the mother texted: “This is [girl’s name]’s parents. Your game is DONE! We are going to speak to the police in the morning.”

According to the suit, McLaughlin promised to stop the relationship but begged the mother not to contact police.

But the police did investigate and discovered that McLaughlin had other victims, according to the complaint. By that time, the suit says, “it was too late to prevent plaintiff from being physically, sexually assaulted by Defendant McLaughlin.”

In December 2015, McLaughlin pleaded guilty to institutional sexual assault and endangering the welfare of children.

The woman says she suffered further humiliation at school because everyone knew what happened, made comments about it to her and even wrote graffiti about it on a bathroom wall.

The suit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for emotional distress.

Torsten Ove: tove@post-gazette.com.