Suit against W.Va. school officials alleges they ignored students' molestation claims, retaliated
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia's attorney general says local school officials brushed aside allegations that two middle school boys sexually abused female classmates, and he claims the officials interfered with a state police investigation of the incidents in Mingo County — a community that has been rocked by multiple political scandals in the past year.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey also claims in a lawsuit that administrators at Burch Middle School retaliated against the girls for reporting the allegations. It says the abuses occurred during the 2012-13 school year and have continued to present.
Defendants include the principal, vice principal, guidance counselor and a coach, the boys and their parents, the Mingo County School Board and superintendent. Names of the boys and their parents were not released. The lawsuit filed Wednesday asks Mingo County Circuit Court to prevent further abuse and retaliation and bar defendants from interfering with the police investigation.
The lawsuit comes less than a year after a former Mingo County judge, prosecutor, magistrate and county commissioner pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a federal corruption probe. The county on the southwestern edge of the state also was rocked in 2013 by the slaying of its sheriff.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/wv-top-lawyer-sues-school-officials-over-sex-claim