Former Bowie High students move sexual harassment suit against AISD teacher to state court

Lawyers for several former students have split and moved a lawsuit accusing a Bowie High School theater teacher of sexual harassment out of federal court and into a state district court, a more appropriate legal venue, the attorneys said. The students are seeking $1 million in damages.

The part of the original lawsuit against the Austin school district that accuses administrators and school board members of ignoring the alleged abuse will remain in federal court. In that suit, the former students are seeking court costs and other relief, such as having sexual assault and harassment training for theater programs, hiring intimacy coordinators for theater programs and monitoring theater clubs. 

The former Bowie students refiled the part of the lawsuit against the teacher in Travis County's 53rd state District Court on Jan. 20. In the suit, the former students accuse the 30-year theater director of inappropriate sexual behavior about a decade ago: inappropriate touching; harmful and abusive language; assault; battery; and emotional and psychological abuse and manipulation between 2008 and 2014, when the five female plaintiffs were in school.

The former students allege in the suit that “during intimacy rehearsals, (the teacher) called students into a special session in the evening and directed them to ‘have sex,’ meaning they had to practice whatever sexual conduct (the teacher) desired for their roles,” according to court documents.

The teacher “would force minor students to engage in open-mouth kissing, groping and simulate sexual intercourse in order to ‘convince her’ that they sexually desired each other,” according to the lawsuit.

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The alumni also claim the teacher "would retaliate against them in a multitude of ways, including refusing to cast them in roles,” if they didn’t do what she said.

They also claim the teacher provided drugs to at least one student, according to the suit.

No criminal charges have been filed against the teacher, who did not return a request for comment from the American-Statesman on Wednesday.

Ellwanger Law, an Austin-based firm representing the former students, originally filed the lawsuit against the district and the teacher in the federal Texas Western District Court on Sept. 29. Moving the case against the teacher from federal to state court doesn't change anything about the case except for its location, said Jennifer Jones Despins, a partner with Ellwanger.

The Austin district confirmed the teacher has remained on paid administrative leave since October, shortly after the suit was filed in federal court, but declined to comment further.

In the suit against the district, the former students claim the district ignored the abuse when the school board decided last year to name a building after the teacher, several years after the alleged incidents took place.

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The decision meant the district was “praising and commending their assaulter” and prompted the former students “to revisit their damaging experiences as children at the hands of defendant,” according to the lawsuit.

“That is a huge point of contention for the plaintiffs,” Jones Despins said.

The lawsuit also claims the Austin district received complaints about the teacher, and the former students want school officials to investigate the educator, Jones Despins said.

“We were told in August that they would be doing an investigation, and that’s the last I’ve heard from AISD,” Jones Despins said.

The Ellwanger firm is awaiting responses to the lawsuit from both the teacher and the district, Jones Despins said.

In their petition to the court, the former students are also seeking the removal of the teacher's name from the building.

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