As the trial date approaches in a lawsuit against Albuquerque Public Schools, the district’s Board of Education will hold a closed session at Wednesday’s regular meeting to discuss the matter.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleges an English teacher at Valley High School engaged in inappropriate behavior with a 17-year-old student during the 2019-2020 school year.
APS, in a motion for summary judgment, argued that the plaintiffs failed to show they suffered any physical harm.
A jury trial is scheduled for Oct. 21, with a pretrial conference set for Oct. 7.
A complaint filed on the student’s behalf says the teacher first asked about her sexual orientation, what actors she found attractive and later made unwanted physical contact with her and other female students, including rubbing their shoulders, grabbing one student’s hand under the pretense of looking at her nails and regularly commenting on what the student was wearing and how her clothes fit her body.
“He even stated, at the beginning of the school year when the air conditioning was not working, that the female students could go ahead and take off their bras if it would make them more comfortable,” the complaint states.
The complaint also says he took a student’s mobile phone and programmed his personal phone number into it, offering her a chance to call and “discuss her insecurities,” and mentioned a sexual act in warning her to not tell anyone she had his number.
The complaint says the student informed her father of the teacher’s actions in January 2020, and that her father reported what she told him to school officials, who promised an investigation. It’s alleged that the teen wasn’t contacted by an investigator from the district’s Office of Equal Opportunity Services until May 2020.
APS, the teacher and Valley’s principal are listed as defendants in the suit, along with 10 other school staff members not mentioned by name.
Attorneys for the parties did not respond to requests for comment. APS spokesperson Martin Salazar said the district does not comment on pending litigation.
By law, the board can take no action in the executive session.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
WHEN: 5 p.m. Oct. 2
WHERE: John Milne Community Board Room at district headquarters, 6400 Uptown Blvd.
VIRTUAL: The APS board’s YouTube channel