WASHINGTON SCHOOLS SEXUAL ABUSE LAWSUITS

Fighting for Survivors of Sexual Abuse in Washington Schools

Washington schools allegedly failed to protect students from sexual abuse by teachers and staff, with allegations spanning decades across numerous school districts. 

Levy Konigsberg is investigating claims that students in Washington schools were sexually abused by teachers and staff despite known reports of misconduct. 

Multiple Washington school districts have faced lawsuits alleging that teachers, coaches, and staff sexually abused students over several decades, with allegations spanning from the 1990s through the 2020s. The cases involve numerous districts across the state, with school officials in many instances allegedly having been aware of misconduct but failing to report it or take disciplinary action. Settlements across the various cases have totaled tens of millions of dollars, with litigation ongoing in several districts.

Schools should be a safe haven for children, a place where parents can trust that their kids are protected while they learn. Yet, allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct in Washington schools expose glaring failures and betrayals by teachers, educators and school officials. If you or a loved one was harmed, contact us today.

Sex Abuse Scandals in Washington Schools

Examples of alleged abuse, and of conditions likely to lead to abuse within Washington schools, include the following:

Federal Way Public Schools

• In May 2026, a $15 million settlement was reached in a lawsuit against Federal Way Public Schools in Washington, alleging that Glenfield Watkins, former teacher at Totem Middle School (now known as Evergreen Middle School), sexually assaulted two middle school students between 2010 and 2016. 

Watkins allegedly groomed both victims, progressing from inappropriate comments, touching, and fondling to repeated sexual intercourse.

He was sentenced to prison in December 2023. 

The lawsuit alleged the district was negligent and failed to protect the students from abuse. It admitted liability for gender-based discrimination and negligence.

Pierce County

• In January 2025, reports showed that Pierce County school districts had paid over $51 million since 2015 to settle sexual abuse claims.

Seattle Public Schools (Garfield High School and Ballard High School)

• In October 2024, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) settled for $16 million with a former student who was allegedly sexually abused by former Garfield High School coaches Walter Jones and Marvin Hall. The plaintiff said Walter Junior Jones, a volunteer weight training coach, forcibly raped her in 2013 when she was a 13-year-old basketball prodigy practicing with the Garfield girls’ team. Jones allegedly threatened to kill the girl and her family if she reported the abuse, which she said continued for two years. At the time of the settlement, Jones was awaiting trial in King County Superior Court on two counts of felony child rape. When the former student was 17, she said, Garfield basketball coach Marvin Wayne Hall began an abusive sexual relationship with her. He allegedly had sex with her at the school and in hotel rooms when the team traveled.

• In May 2022, Seattle Public Schools settled for $3 million with a student who was allegedly sexually abused by Meghan Miller, a former assistant soccer coach and instructional assistant at Ballard High School. Miller allegedly sexually abused the 15-year-old student weekly, from 2016 to 2018. In December 2020, the student sued SPS, claiming the district knew about Miller’s past inappropriate behavior before hiring her at Ballard High School in 2010. Miller was arrested and charged with child molestation and sexual misconduct with a minor. She was later convicted and is now a registered sex offender.

Cheney School District (Cheney High School)

• In July 2024, the court awarded $3 million to a former student who was allegedly sexually abused by Michael Alstad, former Cheney High School band director. Alstad allegedly groomed, inappropriately touched, and sexually abused the teenage student for two years.

Sumner-Bonney Lake School District (Sumner High School) 

• In April 2024, two lawsuits were filed against the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District over the alleged sexual abuse of two students by former basketball coach Jacob Jackson. Jacob “Jake” Jackson coached at Sumner High School from 2016-22. He resigned in September 2022. Prosecutors charged Jackson in April 2023 with third-degree child rape, indecent exposure, first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, two counts of third-degree child molestation and five counts of communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

• In June 2023, the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District settled for $7.6 million with the family of a 17-year-old student with a disability who alleged the district failed to protect the student from being sexually assaulted. The victim, who was 17 at the time, was allegedly assaulted by a 15-year-old student between September 2019 and January 2020. The assault was allegedly reported in January 2020, when another student walked in and saw the victim being assaulted in the bathroom.

Seattle Preparatory School

• In March 2024, Seattle Preparatory School settled for $2.425 million with a former student who was allegedly groomed, harassed, and sexually abused by a former teacher and softball coach. The former coach, who went on to become the school’s athletics director, worked at Seattle Prep from 1992 to 2006 and reportedly harassed several female students.

University Place School District (Curtis Junior High and Curtis High School)

• In July 2026, the University Place School District agreed to pay $21 million to settle allegations that it failed to protect six former students from grooming and sexual abuse by Michael Basse, a substitute nurse and classroom assistant who worked in multiple district schools between 2008 and 2016. 

Basse faced 20 counts of child rape and child molestation for the alleged abuse of at least eight boys between the ages of 9 and 15. 

• In May 2023, the University Place School District settled for $9.5 million with three former students who alleged they were sexually abused by Curtis Junior High and Curtis High School volunteer wrestling coach David James O’Connor in the mid-2000s. O’Connor allegedly fondled and masturbated the victims, who were 14 to 16 years old at the time. Prosecutors charged O’Connor with four counts of child molestation in 2014 when two former student-athletes came forward. At the time, investigators also discovered he had been convicted of indecent liberties involving children in Lewis County in 1977.

• In August 2022, the district settled for $4.2 million with six men who alleged O’Connor sexually abused them when they were students in the mid-2000s. Three of the nine men also filed lawsuits against the Pierce County Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where O’Connor held community roles.

Olympia School District

• In December 2022, Olympia School District settled a lawsuit for $7.5 million on behalf of two children who were allegedly molested by a former bus driver Gary Shafer. In 2011, Shafer was convicted of molesting three girls and possessing child pornography. During criminal proceedings, he reportedly admitted to molesting dozens of girls.

Bethel School District

• In October 2021, a jury awarded $500,000 to a former special education student from the Bethel School District, who was allegedly sexually abused by another special education student during the 2012–2013 school year. The offender had previously assaulted others in the Clover Park School District.

Puyallup School District (Kalles Junior High School)

• In April 2021, the Puyallup School District settled for $7.75 million with seven former students who were allegedly sexually abused by former Kalles Junior High teacher Tim Paulsen between 1991 and 2004.

• In August 2019, the Puyallup School District settled for $1.5 million with a former student who was allegedly abused by a former Kalles Junior High School teacher in the 1990s. According to the lawsuit, the student was a seventh grader at Kalles Junior High School during the 1995-1996 school year when he had the teacher for gym class. The teacher allegedly invited young boys to spend the night at his home and would encourage them to get undressed, wrote the student love letters, and sexually abused the student when he chaperoned a field trip to Washington, D.C. when the boy was in 10th grade and shared a room with the student. According to court records, the district settled a different lawsuit related to the teacher for $110,000 in 2006.

Aberdeen School District (Washington High School)

• In December 2020, the Aberdeen School District settled for $2 million with a student who was sexually abused by former Washington High School band director Michael Alstad, who admitted to the abuse. Alstad left Cheney High School to work as a band director at Washington High School, where he was accused of abusing at least two girls, including the student who received the $2 million settlement. Alstad also worked at Sunnyside School District.

Briscoe Memorial School

• In January 2016, the Archdiocese of Seattle released a list of 77 clergy and religious brothers and sisters credibly accused of sexual abuse, including one priest and twelve (12)  brothers and sisters who taught at Briscoe Memorial School between 1939 and 1969. 
• In June 2014, the Archdiocese of Seattle agreed to pay $12.1 million to settle 30 sexual abuse claims from former students of Briscoe Memorial School and O’Dea High School, both run by the Christian Brothers.
• In May 2013, the Congregation of Christian Brothers agreed to pay $16.5 million to more than 400 victims of sexual and physical abuse, many of whom had been abused at Briscoe Memorial School.
• In October 2005, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of eight men who alleged they suffered physical and sexual abuse at Briscoe Memorial School between 1950 and 1970. The lawsuit named the Archdiocese of Seattle and the Congregation of Christian Brothers as defendants, alleging the boys were molested and regularly beaten with sticks, leather straps, and paddles by a resident priest, Christian Brothers, cooks, and night watchmen.

St. Benedict’s School

• In July 2012, a King County jury awarded $6.4 million to a former student who alleged he was repeatedly sexually abused between 1961 and 1964 by Daniel Adamson, a teacher and principal at St. Benedict’s School. 

The jury also found the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Archdiocese of Seattle and the Dominican Sisters partially responsible. The alleged abuse occurred at Adamson’s home, at the school, in the church, and in motel rooms.

In January 2016, the victim publicly criticized the Archdiocese of Seattle’s newly released list of credibly accused clergy for omitting Adamson. The victim also alleged that the Rev. Henry Conrad and other priests at St. Benedict’s School.

LK is Investigating Sexual Abuse Claims in Washington Schools

Levy Konigsberg is investigating cases of sexual abuse and assault that occurred in Washington schools.

You may have a potential claim if you were sexually abused in any of the following schools, archdioceses, or districts:

• Aberdeen School District (Washington High School)
• Bethel School District
• Briscoe Memorial School
• Cheney School District (Cheney High School)
• Federal Way Public Schools
• Olympia School District
• Pierce County
• Puyallup School District (Kalles Junior High School)
• Seattle Preparatory School
• Seattle Public Schools (Ballard High School and Garfield High School)
• St. Benedict’s School
• Sumner-Bonney Lake School District (Sumner High School)
• University Place School District (Curtis Junior High and Curtis High School)

Do I Have a Case?

You may have grounds to file a civil legal action if:

• You were sexually abused by a teacher or staff at a school.
• The abuse occurred at any school.

Levy Konigsberg represents survivors in civil lawsuits that aim to hold schools accountable for their failures to stop abusive teachers and staff.

As civil claims, these cases are separate from any criminal proceedings that may arise from abuse and focus instead on holding institutions liable for damages. This means you may still have a claim even if:

• Your abuser is no longer alive.
• Your abuser was never charged with or convicted of a crime.

Recoverable Damages in Sexual Abuse Claims

In addition to providing accountability and a sense of justice, civil sex abuse lawsuits allow survivors to recover financial compensation for their damages, which may include:

• Past medical and mental health expenses
• Future mental health expenses, including therapy, medications, etc.
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional anguish and psychological harm
• Lost income
• Other economic and non-economic damages

Washington Sexual Abuse Attorneys

Under current Washington state law, survivors of sexual abuse have three years from the date of their abuse, or three years from the date they discover the connection between their injuries (which can include addiction, self-harm, and other mental health issues) and the abuse (or a defendant’s actions that led to the abuse), to file civil lawsuits.

In March 2024, the governor signed into law a bill (House Bill 1618) removing the statute of limitations for civil claims related to child sexual abuse. As a result, for any sexual abuse occurring on or after June 6, 2024, there is no deadline to file.

However, the new law is not retroactive, meaning that it does not apply to sexual abuse that occurred before June 6, 2024. Survivors of sexual abuse that occurred before this time still have three years from the date of their abuse, or three years from the date they discover the connection between their injuries and the abuse or actions that led to the abuse, to file civil lawsuits. 

Determining the statute of limitations that applies to your sexual abuse case against a Washington school can be challenging, which is why it is best to bring your matter to the attention of an experienced lawyer.

We are committed to protecting the most vulnerable members of our society and seeking justice for survivors of sexual abuse in schools. Our experienced team is dedicated to providing legal representation and support to survivors, and we are actively investigating allegations of abuse. We are working tirelessly to ensure that survivors have access to justice and that future generations of young people are safe from harm within these institutions.