OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) – The Washington Law Against Discrimination can be applied to the lawsuit of students who were subjected to abuse and sexual misconduct by their bus driver.
The Washington Supreme Court reached that decision June 18 in response to questions posed by the federal court hearing the lawsuit, which has caught the attention of several parties like the Washington Association for Justice Foundation – the state’s plaintiffs lawyers group.
The federal court asked the state Supreme Court to questions:
-May a school district be subject to strict liability for discrimination by its employees in violation of the WLAD?
-If a school district may be strictly liable for its employees’ discrimination under the WLAD, does “discrimination” for the purposes of this cause of action encompass intentional sexual misconduct, including physical abuse and assault?
The court answered yes to both.
“(T)o whatever extent sovereign immunity may have protected school districts from discrimination lawsuits prior to the WLAD, the WLAD clearly abrogated that sovereign immunity when it create a private cause of action, permitting suit in court, for discrimination in places of public accommodation and included public educational facilities in its definition of places of public accommodation,” the ruling says.
Other groups filing amicus briefs in the case included the National Center for Victims of Crime, Washington Schools Risk Management Pool, Legal Voice and Washington Defense Trial Lawyers.
Victims of bus driver Gary Shafer are suing the Olympia School District. In 2019, after a state Supreme Court ruling in another case, they moved to amend their complaint to include a claim under the WLAD.
Shafer was convicted in 2011 of molesting three girls and was sentenced to 14 ½ years in prison. He has admitted to molesting dozens of girls.
Now, the school district could have to pay for his actions.