Teacher used gifts, scholarships to make advances on Central Kentucky student, lawsuit says

A Woodford County High School choir teacher expressed a desire to see a student naked, promised her scholarships and lead roles in plays and brought her gifts in exchange for unlawful touching and communications, a federal lawsuit alleges.

The allegations were made by the parents of Woodford High sisters who filed the suit Tuesday against the teacher and the Woodford Board of Education. The parents, identified as “John and Jane Doe” to disguise their actual names, allege the male choir teacher inappropriately contacted their two daughters in 2017 and 2018.

The federal suit claims school officials failed to appropriately respond or follow federal sexual-violence reporting rules under the civil rights law Title IX.

The suit identifies the choir director only by the initials “J.C.S.” Media outlets reported last month that choir teacher Cooper Schrimsher resigned after he was placed on administrative leave.

Kentucky State Police are investigating the teacher, said Versailles Police Lt. Michael Fortney. Schrimsher could not be reached for comment.

Woodford Superintendent Scott Hawkins said Wednesday that he had not seen the complaint and could not comment on it. But he said school officials “did notify all the proper authorities after we were made aware of the allegations.”

Schrimsher was entering his third year as a teacher in Woodford schools at the time he resigned, Hawkins said. He said Schrimsher resigned after the school system completed an internal investigation.

The suit says the teacher “engaged in prurient contact with K.G. and M.G. both on and off campus, including but not limited to unlawful sexual touching and written, verbal and electronic communications of a sexual and abusive nature....”

K.G. recorded conversations in which the teacher talked about her breasts and his desire to see her naked and be with her sexually. Transcripts of two recordings were included as exhibits with the complaint.

According to the transcript of one recorded conversation, a man indicated that he wanted to see a girl’s breasts. The girl responds “Gross. Gross. Gross. Gross.”

“It’s not gross,” the male speaker responded. “It’s just natural.”

The girl responded: “It’s nasty. It’s not natural.”

Upon learning of the recording in August, school officials seized K.G.’s cell phone, detained her, “and told her she would not be permitted to contact her parents until after she had provided a written statement about J.C.S.’s conduct,” the suit says.

One way that the teacher allegedly contacted the student was an electronic application called “Remind App” that was used to send notifications to students, the suit says. The teacher obtained K.G.’s personal cell phone number from the Remind App and began texting to her both on and off campus, the suit says.

Initially, the teacher texted K.G. to remind her about extracurricular activities and upcoming choir events. But later the texts “became inappropriate and sexual in nature,” the suit says. The teacher also used Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to communicate with the student.

On one occasion while in his office, the teacher showed K.G. a photo of herself in a bikini that he had downloaded from her Facebook profile and saved to his computer stating “I wish I could see right through that,” the suit says.

The teacher promised K.G. he would give her lead roles in a school play “as long as she told no one about his advances,” the suit says. He later gave her the role of Lucy in the play “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

The suit says the teacher gave K.G. apple pies from McDonald’s and gave her gift certificates from lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret.

Meanwhile, the suit says the teacher befriended K.G. and M.G.’s parents and appeared at their family home on several occasions for social gatherings. “On one such occasion he became inebriated and passed out on their living room couch,” the suit says.

On another occasion at the girls’ home, the teacher told M.G. he would teach her a “breathing technique” to help her sing better in choir. “He insisted that he stand behind M.G.’s body with his arms around her so that he could hold her waist and the undercarriage of her rib cage while she breathed deeply with her back against his chest. The incident made M.G. extremely uncomfortable. M.G. told him to stop and he did.”

The following week, the teacher called M.G. to his office to apologize for the incident at her home, the suit says. The two hugged but the teacher “put his hands on M.G.’s buttocks and squeezed.” The girl left the office angry and humiliated, the suit says.

In January 2017, another student at the high school saw inappropriate text messages between the teacher and K.G. while on campus and informed school administrators “that he believed K.G. was afraid and/or uncomfortable because of the texts.”

The principal and a school resource officer approached Jane Doe at a school basketball game and demanded that she retrieve her daughter’s cell phone for inspection. The mother complied.

K.G. was not interviewed at the time. The suit alleges that no formal or informal written or oral complaint was filed concerning this first investigation.

In the spring of 2018, the teacher promised K.G. that she could have lead roles in the school’s drama production if she kept quiet about his “escalating verbal and physical advances,” the suit says.

He also “promised K.G. that he would help her get scholarship money for college. He made these promises in exchange for K.G.’s continued silence,” the suit says.

On Aug. 15, 2018, K.G. recorded the conversations that were later transcribed and included as exhibits. A classmate reported the recording to the principal, and K.G. was called to the school office on Aug. 16. School administrators interrogated the sisters, who were not permitted to contact their parents until giving written statements, the suit says.

On Aug. 24, 2018, the school board accepted the teacher’s resignation.

The reaction was too long in coming, the suit argues. Title IX requires K-12 schools, colleges and universities to maintain environments free from sexual harassment.

The suit alleges violations of the Title IX law, unreasonable search by school officials of the data stored on the cellphone, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil battery and false imprisonment. The parents asked for a jury trial.

This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 1:40 PM.