A West Virginia teacher who was convicted of molesting a 14-year-old girl had a list of the “top 10” most attractive middle school students, the New York Post reported.
Ronald Paul Harris, 63, was also caught masturbating on school property multiple times. A new lawsuit is accusing school administrators of turning "a blind eye” to his behavior during his time as a history teacher and basketball coach at Oak Glen Middle School in New Cumberland.
He's now serving a 10-to-20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in September to abusing a high school freshman in 2010 who was working after school as a classroom helper. The victim, now 27, is suing the Hancock County West Virginia Board of Education and then-middle school principal David Smith for failing to protect her.
“This case is a parent’s worst nightmare,” said attorney Mary Pat Statler in a statement.
“To learn that your child was groomed and sexually abused by a teacher is beyond awful. It’s made even more terrible knowing that the administrator at the time of the abuse was in a position to stop the abuse or prevent future instances of abuse and instead turned a blind eye.”
The victim claims Harris “began to express his romantic love and sexual feelings” and said he was saving money so they could get married when she turned 18.
“Shortly after (she) began visiting defendant Harris on OGMS property during her ninth-grade year Harris began sexually abusing her,” the 19-page complaint alleges. “Defendant Harris would take (her) into the storage closet of the media room, which was connected to his regular classroom by an interior door, and request that (she) remove her shirt and proceeded to remove his own shirt.”
The lawsuit also says that Harris’ marriage to a former student should have “put them on notice of his character and moral turpitude.”
Read the full report over at the New York Post.