A victim of sexual assault at the hands of a staffer at a St. George school for troubled youth has sued the school in civil court, alleging it failed to protect him from the abuse.
The lawsuit was filed against Red Rock Canyon School — a psychiatric residential treatment center for adolescents — and its subsidiaries Thursday. It seeks damages to be determined at trial.
The lawsuit alleges an employee at the school, Diarra Fields, was 27 years old in the summer of 2012 when he engaged in sexual activity with a 16-year-old boy on school property multiple times. The lawsuit alleges Fields also molested two other students at the school.
Fields, now 33, was charged criminally for the sexual abuse in 2012 and pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse in 2014, shortly before he was set to go to trial.
He was sentenced to 210 days in jail with credit for time served and placed on probation. His probation ended March 28, according to court documents.
The civil suit is the second such lawsuit filed by the victim against Fields and Red Rock. A similar lawsuit was filed in 2015, but in December 2016, Red Rock filed a motion to dismiss the case, claiming the plaintiff had not complied with prelitigation procedures outlined in the Utah Health Care Malpractice Act.
About two weeks later, both parties stipulated to a dismissal without prejudice, which was approved.
Matthew Feller, the plaintiff’s attorney in the most recent litigation, said there has not yet been any discussion with the school regarding settlement. Red Rock Canyon officials did not return a request for comment.
The lawsuit filed Thursday claims school policy dictated that staff could not be alone with students; however, employees were aware that Fields was spending time alone with students, including the plaintiff.
Feller said while the individual acts of Fields and others like him are unspeakable, he finds it is more appropriate to go after the institution in situations like this.
“Our target in all of these cases is why did it happen,” Feller said. “We see that if a school gives an individual the time, space and opportunity to do these things, it’s going to happen.”
Feller said when a school employee molests a student, the school either failed to enforce policies put in place or failed to institute the proper policies. Either way, the situations are avoidable with proper supervision, he said.
“When that happens, it just becomes a breeding ground for these kinds of events,” he said.
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