Lawsuit: Teacher Forced Students to Give Foot Massages
Lawsuit: Teacher Forced Students to Give Foot Massages at Fishers School
- Teacher is accused of forcing students to give her foot massages as a 'reward'
- School district investigated claims but found them 'unsubstantiated' and kept teacher employed
- Parents seek admission of fault, apology, damages, and policy changes from school district
FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) — Parents of three Hamilton Southeastern elementary school students have filed a tort claim that says a teacher reportedly forced their children to rub her feet.
News 8 has elected not to identify the teacher named in the tort claim as no criminal charges have been filed.
Attorneys from Massillamany Jeter & Carson law firm in Fishers are representing the New Britton Elementary School students.
According to the claim, the incidents happened between August and October. Attorneys say the girls’ teacher would “reward” the students for doing “certain tasks, helping her in the classroom or ‘being good’ by allowing them to give her foot massages.”
The teacher reportedly “would sit in a chair during story time while the girls took turns rubbing her feet.”
After the students and their families reported the inappropriate contact to the school, the teacher was placed on administrative leave two separate times in late October during an investigation into the claims.
In November, the Hamilton Southeastern Schools human resources department announced that the “allegations could not be substantiated,” ultimately closing the investigation.
Tom Blessing, an attorney with the law firm representing the students, said in a statement in a news release issued Tuesday that the incidents at New Britton Elementary “look like a textbook case of grooming.”
Blessing added that these recent cases aren’t isolated, reporting that other parents have had similar experiences involving their children and the teacher that stretch back at least 10 years.
“Schools are always boasting about their ‘Zero Tolerance’ policies: zero tolerance for drugs, zero tolerance for weapons, zero tolerance for bullying. Why isn’t there zero tolerance for teachers grooming students?” Blessing said in the release.
“This is not a good look for HSE schools, so it wants to sweep this under the rug and move on, which is usually how schools handle these situations: Deny it, refuse to tell parents what’s being done about it, and hope everyone just forgets it. Teachers get quietly transferred or are allowed to resign, but no one ever apologizes or gets fired.”
Blessing says that the teacher does not work at New Britton Elementary School anymore, but “she is still employed by HSE Schools as a teacher at a different elementary school in the district.”
Blessing referred to this move as “passing the trash.”
“It doesn’t solve the problem, it just moves it somewhere else.”
The tort claim further accused the school district of being negligent for not supervising the students and for hiring, retaining, and not supervising the teacher.
“(The parents) are seeking an admission of fault, a public apology, monetary damages, disciplinary action, additional training and changes to school policies,” the attorneys argued.
News 8 reached out Tuesday afternoon to Hamilton Southeastern Schools for a response to the tort claim.
