LAKEBAY, Wash. — The families of four young Pierce County girls are suing the Peninsula School District.
The lawsuit said the district should have better protected them from their teacher at Evergreen Elementary School, who is accused of molesting them. The alleged crimes happened inside his classroom during school hours.
Former Evergreen Elementary School teacher Jordan Henderson was arrested in April and is charged with 12 counts of child molestation. He was originally charged with nine counts, but then another survivor came forward.
A school district spokesperson said the district does not comment on active litigation.
There are four known students, who were all girls at the elementary school.
Court records show the first student, an 11-year-old girl, reported the crimes in February earlier this year and said the crimes occurred between the years of 2022 to 2024.
“It's absolutely devastating for an entire family to discover this information,” said Kevin Hastings, an attorney with PCVA Law, who is representing the four girls and their families in the lawsuit just filed against the district.
The lawsuit states the district "knew or should have known that the risk of sexual abuse of students was significant and that measures were needed to protect students."
“We believe that the school district knew, or at minimum should have known, about what was occurring and that Jordan Henderson was a danger to these young girls and was actively molesting them at various times throughout the school day,” said Hastings.
The lawsuit goes on to say as a result of the district’s “acts and omissions” the girls "suffered mental anguish, deprivation of educational opportunities, severe emotional distress, and loss of consortium."
“The tragic part about sexual abuse is that it does cause lasting psychological harms,” said Hastings.
The lawsuit added that Henderson's mother also worked at the school and kept working there after he had been accused and charged. It stated that the district had the authority to put his mother on leave to avoid further trauma to the girls but did not.
“The school district needs to make sure that this doesn't happen again to other people, that the parents of the Peninsula School District can have confidence that their kids are going to school and they're not going to be sexually molested by a teacher,” said Hastings.
Henderson is currently on electronic home monitoring after paying a $750,000 bond. His trial is set for this December.