Former Charleroi student settles sex assault case against district
The case brought by a former Charleroi Area School District student who sued because she was assaulted by a former Bethlehem-Center music teacher has settled.
In 2014, a student, identified only as Jane Doe, sued both districts, Charleroi High School Principal Dr. Patricia Mason and teacher Jennifer Joyce, claiming she was not protected from Jeffrey Hahn, a Beth-Center teacher who produced Charleroi’s 2012 spring musical.
Last week, a federal judge in Pittsburgh entered an order indicating portions of the case that involved Charleroi had resolved, and the terms of the settlement were sealed. The order also dismissed Joyce, the Charleroi teacher who oversaw the musical, from the case.
On Sept. 1, a federal judge indicated in an order that Beth-Center attorneys intended to file motions to dismiss the portions of the case involving that district.
Doe, 17 when the suit was filed in 2014, was raped and assaulted by Hahn in May 2012 at Charleroi High School. She was 15 and in ninth grade at the time. Hahn was a seventh-grade teacher at Beth-Center’s middle school.
Hahn, who was charged and pleaded guilty to statutory sexual assault, institutional sexual assault, sexual assault and corruption of minors, is serving four to eight years in prison.
The suit alleged that Beth-Center knew that Hahn had inappropriate relationships with female students there, but did not investigate the alleged relationships.
During and after the musical rehearsals at Charleroi, Hahn, now 27, became involved in a romantic relationship with Doe, often holding her hand in front of others, according to the suit.
In May 2012, two months after the musical production, Hahn asked the teen to help him remove stage props from a basement storage room at the high school auditorium and sexually assaulted and raped her.
The suit indicated he slammed her head against a wall, cutting her scalp. A bloodstain from the cut remained on the wall for the rest of the school year, according to the suit.
The suit contended Joyce was told about the relationship in March or April by Doe and two of her friends. She warned Hahn to stop but did not report the relationship or fire him, the suit indicated.
Joyce was criminally charged with not reporting the abuse, and was admitted to a pretrial diversionary program for 12 months.
When Doe went back to school in August 2012, she was harassed by classmates about the incident, according to the suit.
“She had flashbacks regarding the sexual assault while in school and was visibly reminded of the assault because she regularly walked past the wall that had the stain from her blood. She frequently broke down emotionally, had panic attacks and began crying in her classes,” the suit indicated.
When Mason asked her what was wrong, the teen told her.
Mason told the girl she didn’t believe her and she should stop telling “outrageous stories.” The suit indicated Mason blocked the teen from seeking help from her teachers.
The teen’s parents met with former superintendent Brad Ferko and Mason. During that meeting, Mason allegedly told the girl’s parents that she needed to focus on schoolwork and to stop having emotional outbursts.
Doe’s parents removed her from the school in October 2012 because they did not feel she was being helped and was being retaliated against for seeking help.
She attended cyber school for all but the last two periods of the day — algebra and band — but continued to be harassed by students and to see the blood stain on the wall where she had been assaulted, according to the suit.
Mason allegedly pulled her in and told the teen that she should “grow up and stop talking about what happened to you.”
Doe ultimately left the district to attend an independent charter school program.