Several officials at Maine’s Medomak Valley High School were aware of a principal’s inappropriate relationship with a female student months before he was forced out, according to an updated complaint.
The now 19-year-old former student is suing her former principal Andrew Cavanaugh, the Regional School Unit 40 and a school social worker over the sexual harassment and special attention Cavanaugh showered on the girl, WGME reports.
District attorneys claimed in a response to the lawsuit that school officials in a position to intervene were aware of the misconduct, but new evidence suggests otherwise.
“ … the amended lawsuit claims that in the spring of 2017, Cavanaugh’s assistant ‘expressed concern about this behavior’ to assistant principals Tamra Philbrook and Linda Pease,” according to the news site.
“The student’s teachers also expressed concern to Philbrook and Pease about Cavanaugh frequently calling to student to his office, resulting in missed class time, according to the lawsuit.”
Local police were also aware of the “pervert principal” and didn’t take action for months, the lawsuit alleges.
Waldoboro Police Officer Christopher Spear, the school’s resource officer, sent an email to Chief William Labombarde with the subject line “Pervert Principal” in September 2017 when he stopped the young woman for speeding in a vehicle registered to Cavanaugh, Village Soup reports.
Spear wrote that he also notified Philbrook and expressed concerns about Cavanaugh’s relationship with the girl, who he frequently witnessed leaving the principal’s office.
A formal investigation wasn’t launched until two months later, prompted by a third-party complaint to WPD.
The lawsuit alleges Philbrook and Pease spoke with Cavanaugh about his relationship with the girl during her junior year. The teen contends Cavanaugh began commenting on her clothes and appearance when she was 16-years-old and would provide her with personal hygiene products in front of other students and staff.
The lawsuit alleges Cavanaugh texted the teen 5,000 times between April and November 2017, including messages loaded with sexual innuendo. The teen alleges she repeatedly confided in school social worker Chuck Nguyen about the behavior, but Nguyen assured her Cavanaugh simply wanted to be a “father figure” and blamed the misbehavior on an alleged alcohol abuse, Village Soup reports.
“The woman, now 19 years old, claims she has been diagnosed with adjustment disorder, social anxiety and worsened depression as a direct result of the emotionally traumatic relationship with Cavanaugh,” according to the news site.
The principal resigned in December 2017 and has not been charged with a crime, despite investigations by Waldoboro Police and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.
Cavanaugh denied the claims in a Feb. 7 filing, while district and social worker also denied claims they failed to act in a separate March 11 response.
“The school district’s position on behavior of this nature is clear and undisputed: it has zero tolerance for it and, as alleged in the Complaint, it has a sexual harassment policy to combat it,” the motion filed by school attorney Melissa Hewey states.
“However, the school district can only act upon matters of which it is actually aware and here, even taking as true Plaintiff’s allegations, nobody with supervisory authority — other than Defendant Cavanaugh, whose knowledge is not relevant for purposes of determining the School District’s liability under Title IX — knew about Cavanaugh’s alleged behavior until the fall of 2017, at which point RSU 40 immediately placed Cavanaugh on leave, after which he resigned.”
This piece originally appeared in TheAmericanMirror.com and is used by permission.
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