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The claim also alleges the school did not conduct mandatory fingerprint clearance or background checks. The claim names Dusty William Lewis as the volunteer softball coach who made female athletes uncomfortable.
“As an attorney, I just look at it that under California law, public schools sort of have a legal and moral responsibility to protect children from this type of what we call foreseeable harm,” the claimant’s lawyer Joe Barrett said.
Legal documents show that a female student had uncomfortable interactions with Lewis. According to Megan’s Law, Lewis is a registered sex offender after being charged with rape by force or fear in 2001. He was in prison until 2008.
“When somebody is allowed amongst the children that should never have been there. And harm occurs, you have to do something about it. We would love to work things out and make it a safer school district,” Barrett said.
The claimant alleges Lewis was given unsupervised access to female student athletes at practices, games, and team activities. During practice, the documents allege that Lewis initiated inappropriate physical contact with the claimant, including grabbing and moving her body under the guise of instruction.
“I’m a father of four. You know, I just believe that it’s really about a fundamental duty of every California school district to keep its students safe,” Barrett said.
The claim alleges that the district and school are liable for things like negligent hiring and failure to comply with education codes.
“Education code, I think it’s like 44807. That’s one of the ones that probably is going to get discussed in this case. It’s a code that basically says that the teachers and the administrators and those in the school are supposed to, you know, supervise and protect the students in their custody,” Barrett said.
The claimant also alleges she told school staff, like the principal, vice principal, athletic director, and coaching staff, about Lewis, but she was ignored and dismissed.
“When adults are in a position of trust and they ignore warnings provided by the parents or they fail to do mandatory screening laws, fingerprinting, basic investigations, which are sort of embedded in the government code and the education code to keep the kids safe, then they fail,” Barrett said.
YourCentralValley.com reached out to Fresno Unified for comment, but has not heard back. The topic was also not discussed during Wednesday’s school board meeting, nor did anyone bring it up during public comment.
The claim also shows that due to Lewis’ actions, the claimant suffered emotional distress and lost trust in school officials.
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