Court Declines to Take Case On Districts' Role in Abuse By Teachers

By Mark Walsh

Washington

The U.S. Supreme Court declined last week to hear the appeal of a Virginia man who had sought to hold a school district partially responsible for years of sexual abuse he suffered from his 6th grade teacher.

The long-running case involving Jackson Baynard, now a 22-year-old college student, and the 11,000-student Alexandria, Va., district reached the high court just as there is a renewed debate over institutional handling of sex- abuse cases. Several Roman Catholic dioceses are struggling with allegations that they mishandled cases of priests' abuse of minors over many years.

While the justices' March 25 action was not a ruling on the merits of the case, it left in place a federal appeals court ruling that makes it more difficult for plaintiffs in some states to hold districts responsible for sexual abuse by teachers. That same lower-court ruling, however, upheld a six-figure judgment against the school principal in the Virginia case for not responding to clues that the 6th-grade teacher was...