Denver school moves to dismiss sexual assault case

DENVER — The Laradon School has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by three former educators who allege they were sexually assaulted by students. The school argues that the employees were aware of the risks involved in their roles and chose to take on those risks willingly.

The Laradon School is a school for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In the lawsuit filed in June, three former employees alleged that the school failed to protect them from sexual assaults and harassment by students with known histories of sexual violence. 

All three employees, hired in 2021 after recently graduating college, were eager to start their careers. 

“It was my passion my whole life,” said Victoria Schmidt, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and former paraprofessional at The Laradon School. “This is what I’ve wanted to do, is work with kids with disabilities, all of my education was for this as well.”

During training, the former employees said they were assured that the school did not admit students with a history of sexual assault and were not trained on how to respond to sexual violence committed by students.

Within the first week, Schmidt said a student began targeting her. On a daily basis, she said she would get groped by this student multiple times in an hour, behavior she documented on his daily data sheets. When she reported this to her supervisors, she said she was told to ignore it.

“Since nothing was done about it, and I was told to ignore him, he was emboldened to try more intense things to me, and again, when I would report it, I was told to ignore it or to walk away,” Schmidt said. “I was gaslit so much until I was almost brainwashed into thinking it was normal because I was told, not only by my teachers but the upper management, that this was just how it goes.” 

She and other former employees say it was widely known within the school that this student was sexually aggressive, yet nothing was done to correct his behavior or protect Schmit. The assaults escalated and eventually culminated in the most violent attack in February 2022.

“He put me into a choke hold and put his hands down my pants,” Schmidt said.

Brooke Swenson, a former special education teacher at Laradon, said she witnessed the harassment Schmidt experienced. She also experienced sexual harassment from another student. Similarly, she said would report it, and nothing was done.

“It was a lot of groping, groping my breasts, trying to take my clothes off, snapping my bra,” Swenson described. “We would give these children all of our love, but they do not get our body also. That’s what it felt like, and nobody was listening to us… Putting it into words is hard.”

Both Swenson and Schmidt said the trauma of their experience at Laradon pushed them out of their professions. Even after trying to get back into special education after leaving Laradon, they said they would experience PTSD and couldn’t do their jobs.

In the 17-page motion to dismiss filed by Laradon on Tuesday, they argued that plaintiffs were trained on how to handle physical assault and that sexual assault is not “categorically different.” 

The lawsuit states, “Plaintiffs were therefore aware that working with students who had serious intellectual and developmental disorders could result in physical attacks.”

“It feels like I’m being invalidated… I had to get on extensive medications and go through extensive therapy, and now I’m in PTSD trauma-specific therapy as well, and that all started after the sexual assaults, not after any physical aggression. It’s a very, very different category,” Schmidt said.

The attorneys representing the former employees said they are confident the motion will be rejected and that, historically, the Colorado Supreme Court has been clear that sexual assault is a separate category.

More broadly, in a world where teachers are becoming more scarce, Kimberly Hult, one of their attorneys, said it’s crucial to address and prevent unchecked behavior.

“To treat these young women like they are disposable is tragic for the schools, for the students, for the families,” Hult said.

The lawsuit is seeking monetary damages to help pay for the medical treatment needed to deal with the trauma and transition to new professions. Plaintiffs would also like to see a complete overhaul of the policies and practices at The Laradon School to ensure incidents like this never happen again.