KIRKWOOD — A woman who sued Kirkwood School District amid a wave of sexual abuse allegations against the district has settled her lawsuit.
The federal suit was dismissed Tuesday in exchange for a “complete release of all claims against the Kirkwood School District,†said Steph Deidrick, spokesperson for the district.
Deidrick did not answer questions about how much Kirkwood will pay in the settlement. Grant Boyd, one of the woman’s attorneys, said the matter was “amicably resolved†but declined to provide specifics.
The woman, identified in court documents only as “Jane Doe,†filed the suit in 2021 after she “recovered memories†of abuse by former Kirkwood football coach and teacher John “Jake†Collier during the 1980-81 school year.
She said her memories of being raped, stalked and sexually abused by Collier resurfaced during the summer of 2020 as an avalanche of #MeToo allegations against the district piled up on social media.
People are also reading…
At least one former teacher, Christopher Stephens, faced criminal charges as part of the reckoning. One woman filed a federal lawsuit against former math teacher and soccer coach David Shapleigh and the district over sexual abuse she claimed happened during the 1980s.
The district hired Kansas City-based Encompass Resolution to investigate the claims and publish a report. The company found that 30 staff members at the school had been accused of sexual misconduct over the previous five decades. Sixteen of those were new allegations that hadn’t been reported until the summer of 2020, when the district created a mechanism for reporting such allegations.
Encompass Resolution’s report, released in 2021, spurred changes in how Kirkwood trains its team and approaches allegations.
Deidrick, the district spokesperson, said school officials hoped the conclusion of the litigation would “contribute to our continued efforts to develop and implement more effective procedures going forward.â€
“While the work is never complete, we are confident in the progress we have made so far to improve our processes and the learning and working environment,†Deidrick said in a statement Wednesday.
In the other two prominent examples, Stephens’ criminal case is ongoing, and he’s scheduled to appear in court on March 22. The suit against Shapleigh and the district was settled in April 2022.
At the center of Doe’s suit against the district were claims that the district failed to stop Collier’s abuse even though they knew about his conduct.
Shortly before Collier sexually abused Doe, the suit claims, Doe’s mother reported Collier for stalking her daughter after he came to Doe’s house uninvited one night and began throwing small objects at her window “in an effort to lure (Doe) from the residence.â€
The suit alleges Kirkwood administrators did nothing to investigate and Collier sexually abused the girl “on one or more occasions†soon after.
Later, during her college admissions process, the girl went to Kirkwood’s administrative office to have her transcripts sent to colleges and was confronted by former Kirkwood High School Principal Franklin McCallie, who said, “(She) was the talk of the school.â€
The suit alleges McCallie, who served as Kirkwood High School principal from 1980 to 2001, then had the girl escorted off school property.
McCallie wasn’t accused of sexual misconduct in 2020, but he was largely blamed by those who brought accusations forward for sweeping complaints “under the rug†— which McCallie denied in a lengthy statement posted to Facebook at the time.
“I must point out that my administration did not turn our heads when students brought to use instances of sexual abuse by a teacher,†McCallie wrote, according to the Riverfront Times, which .
The suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning Doe won’t be able to sue the district for the same allegations again.
“Our client is glad this chapter has closed,†said Boyd, the woman’s lawyer.