Court case amendments

By Julian White-Davis, Director of Photography

 

 

Earlier this year, Vashon Island School District (VISD) — as well as a group of its employees — was sued by a group of anonymous students for sexual harassment and discrimination.

 

The students allege that staff members at McMurray Middle School (MCM) and Vashon Island High School (VHS), were aware of several incidents of sexual harassment and discrimination carried out by other students, but failed to intervene. According to the Plaintiffs, this violates a student’s Washington State constitutional right to education without discrimination and harassment in Article IX.

 

On Oct. 3, 2016, The Riptide received the legal documents for amendments to the suit. The revisions to the charges against VISD alleged that VISD Superintendent Michael Soltman retaliated unlawfully against the initial lawsuit, causing public backlash towards the Plaintiffs.

 

“Superintendent Soltman retaliates against [Plaintiffs] K.H. and S.H. by publicizing their complaints to the entire VISD community, resulting in backlash against their families,” wrote the Plaintiffs’ attorney Jeannette A. Cohen, in public court documents.

 

The Plaintiffs claimed that by sharing the details of the case along with with VISD families as well as his own personal comments, Mr. Soltman had abused his position of power in order to incite public backlash against the Plaintiffs.

 

“[There are] laws [that] exist to protect employees from discrimination and harassment,” said Lisa Guerin, J.D. on legal information website Nolo.com. “…these laws also protect employees from retaliation. That means employers cannot punish employees for making discrimination or harassment complaints or participating in workplace investigations.”

 

This means that the Plaintiffs have grounds to add this claim to their lawsuit so long as the court upholds that Mr. Soltman’s emails to VISD families are in fact a means of the Plaintiffs for their initial lawsuit.

 

However, Mr. Soltman believes that his emails in no way added to the further harassment and “backlash” that the Plaintiffs suffered after the release of the lawsuit.

 

“I think that the Plaintiffs, simply by making a $44 million claim against the district, should anticipate that that, in and of itself, would generate some responses from the community,” said Mr. Soltman. “I do not believe that my restating and giving information to our community added to their concerns in terms of retaliation.”

 

He maintains that his actions were justified and were not intended to further hurt the Plaintiffs

“I have a duty, I think, to keep the community informed about the lawsuit. I was careful to never utilize the Plaintiff’s name or identify the Plaintiff, and I was careful to only provide information after it had been accessed either buy a public records request, by the newspapers or by the Plaintiffs themselves.”

 

The Plaintiffs declined to be interviewed by the Riptide for this story in regards to the lawsuit and to hear their response to Mr. Soltman’s comments.

 

These amendments have not been granted yet; however, VHS Principal Danny Rock believes that they will be approved soon.

 

“The courts are directed to liberally approve these amendments,” said Mr. Rock. “In other words, most amendments of this kind are approved by judges.”

 

Both Mr. Rock and Mr. Soltman believe that the amendments won’t have a significant impact on the outcome or the consequences of the lawsuit.

 

“It is not an out of ordinary circumstance for an amendment like this to be in a lawsuit, nor would it be consequential for the judge to approve the amendment,” said Mr. Rock. “All it does is allows the Plaintiffs to add this allegation to their other allegations and to add this piece of evidence to their overall evidence.”

 

The court case is set to be decided in late Oct., 2017.