Mayo-Gray
HOUSTON - A Texas school district won't have to face a lawsuit alleging one of its teachers recruited a 17-year-old girl and forced her into prostitution.
Federal judge Lee Rosenthal on May 22 dismissed claims made against the Klein Independent School District, which was a co-defendant in the case along with former cosmetology teacher Kedria Grigsby and her son Roger McGee.
A Jane Doe sued all three in February in Houston, alleging Grigsby and McGee took advantage of three troubled teenagers by putting them up in a motel before turning them into prostitutes.
Grigsby, who was arrested in April, faces criminal charges, while McGee has already been sentenced to 20 years. The Jane Doe plaintiff said part of their plan was dosing her with alcohol and Oxycontin while pimping her out on Megapersonals.
But claims against Klein ISD failed, despite allegations it knew what Grigsby was up to. Rosenthal ruled Doe missed the two-year statute of limitations.
"By the spring of 2022, Doe had enough information to know that Klein ISD had injured her by failing to report bruises and suspected abuse, and that Klein ISD knew that Grigsby and McGee - who were not Doe's parents, relatives or guardians - had taken unusually involved roles in Doe's education and life," Rosenthal wrote.
Her claims were tolled until Doe turned 18 in September 2022, but her lawsuit came more than two years later. She argued the statute of limitations didn't apply because Klein fraudulently concealed the existence of her causes of action, but the complaint did not suggest that.
"Instead, Doe alleges that Klein ISD officials failed to act on their own knowledge of the abuse," Rosenthal wrote. "Doe's complaint appears to allege that in February 2023, after Doe's mother reported to Klein ISD that Doe was being trafficked, Klein ISD concealed this information from law enforcement.
"But... those allegations are insufficient to extend the limitations period."
Doe's story begins in 2021, when, at 17 years old, she quit school on Nov. 4 after a school administrator noticed bruises on her arm. The following May, McGee texted Doe's mother to say he and Grigsby would take care of Doe now.
The defendants cut off communication between Doe and her family, threatening the mother that it would tip off authorities to warrants and open Department of Social Services investigations, the suit says.
McGee took explicit photographs of Doe and posted them to Megapersonals, the suit says, and promoted sexually explicit video chat sessions. Grigsby and McGee gave her condoms and a schedule for "dates" or "licks," it is alleged.
Grigsby herself drove Doe to various locations, like the Hotel Royale and Camelot Inn, the suit says. Grigsby also made hotel room reservations and scheduled Doe's appointments, Doe says.
"If Plaintiff questioned anything, complained about anything, disobeyed Grigsby and McGee, or otherwise showed signs of insubordination, Plaintiff would be subjected to violent acts of physical abuse, including numerous occasions where she was pistol-whipped, kicked, punched and severely beaten by Defendant McGee," the suit says.
"The physical punishments left Plaintiff bloodied, bruised and in fear for her life."
Grigsby and McGee recruited other dropouts and high-risk minors, the suit says. Doe was forced to train other girls on the operation, she says.
Doe was arrested in February 2023 for compelling prostitution. Twelve days later, her mother reported the trafficking by Grigsby and McGee, the suit says.
In suing Klein ISD, the suit said Doe's mother had reported the trafficking more than a year before Grigsby's arrest. The ISD was charged with violation of Title IX, arguing sex discrimination in the district's alleged refusal to investigate or intervene.
Klein ISD created an atmosphere "that tolerated sexual abuse," the suit said.
Doe is represented by Aysia Mayo-Gray and Jonathan Jackson of J Jackson Law Offices in Houston, plus Bakari Sellers of Strom Law Firm in Columbia, S.C.
