WOMAN ALLEGES MOLESTATION BY TEACHERS
Carol Lynne Maner was a 15-year-old girl living in a broken home with an alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother who had a multiple personality disorder.
She lacked self-esteem and parental guidance, making her vulnerable to sexual predators who taught at Beaumont Junior High School, Maner's attorney said yesterday in the first day of trial in her lawsuit against the Fayette County Board of Education. On learning of her unstable home situation, an art teacher and a science teacher gained her and her family's trust by posing as parental figures and methodically began grooming her for sexual exploitation, her attorney said.
Maner is accusing the school board of concealing evidence of a clear pattern of sexual abuse by four teachers, a guidance counselor and an assistant principal at Beaumont and Lafayette High School in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Her attorney, Chris Miller of Lexington, warned jurors to be prepared for disturbing details of sexual abuse that was so rampant "that you may think there is no way this could happen in this community."
"It's not going to be pleasant," Miller said. "I wish there was a way I could present this evidence to you all that would make it more palatable. But there is no way. What happened to her when she was 15 years old is beyond belief. It is despicable."
Defense attorney Larry C. Deener said the school board is not responsible for Maner's injuries. Some of the alleged abusers deny wrongdoing. Others are either dead or out of state. But, regardless of whether Maner was sexually abused, the school board was not aware of it and did not cause it to happen, Deener said.
This from the Herald-Leader.
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