Maner Wins Fayette Sex Abuse Case on Appeal

KSN&C Backstory:

This from the Herald-Leader,

Appellate court upholds verdict

against Fayette schools

in sex-abuse lawsuit

The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed Friday that the Fayette County Board of Education must award Carol Lynne Maner $3.7 million in her high-profile sex-abuse lawsuit against the district.

In 2007, a Fayette Circuit Court jury found that school officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s ignored allegations that Maner was sexually abused by four teachers, a guidance counselor and an assistant principal at Beaumont Junior High School and Lafayette High School. The jury's verdict is one of the largest awarded in Fayette County.

The school board had appealed the trial court's decision.

Maner said the appellate court's decision to uphold the 2007 verdict sends a message to school systems that "there's a problem, that this kind of thing happens, and they're not untouchable anymore." ...

In its appeal, the school board basically contended that the trial court had erred in failing to rule that the statute of limitations in the case had run out. But the appeals court rejected that argument.

Maner sued the district in 2003 on a civil rights claim and the Title IX Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational institutions. She says she was essentially denied her right to an education and subsequently slid into depression and drug addiction from the alleged abuse...