The latest lawsuits involving a former Olympia school bus driver convicted of child molestation includes a new allegation.
Two families accuse the school district of concealing information about additional potential victims of Gary Shafer.
In 2011 Shafer was convicted of molesting three students he met on Olympia school busses.
Shafer is serving a 14-and-a-half year sentence.
Shafer admitted to touching the children and said on some occasions he molested them while riding as a passenger on school busses on his own time.
“He was volunteering his time to ride around and be a sexual predator on the busses,” said Bill Houghton, whose daughter rode the bus to kindergarten on a bus driven by Shafer in 2008.
Houghton said after Shafer’s arrest in 2011 the district said their daughter might have been touched by Shafer, but they made it clear it was “minimal.”
According to Houghton’s attorney, Darrell Cochran, Shafer admitted to touching underneath Houghton’s daughter’s clothing.
Cochran said Shafer has admitted to molesting 30 children.
Houghton it was last November, nearly five years after Shafer’s arrest, when the district said the Shafer talked about touching beneath Houghton’s daughter’s clothing
Houghton’s lawsuit alleges the district tried to conceal that information to protect itself from legal action.
Houghton and another family are the ninth and tenth families to sue the school district over Shafer.
“The fact that it happened was completely idiotic,” said Houghton, “Second of all, their follow up, or their response to it was one of self-protection and it was minimizing the entire incident.”
Olympia School District spokesperson Susan Gifford said the district will respond to the lawsuit’s allegations “through the court system process.”
In the written statement Gifford said all complaints about Shafer have been referred to police.
Gifford said whenever a potential victim was identified, “We made every reasonable effort to identify the family, cooperate with law enforcement, and reach out to contact the student’s family.”
After Shafer’s arrest the district installed video cameras in school busses and now requires employees to attend additional training on “boundaries” and mandatory reporting, said Gifford.
Past lawsuits involving the district and Shafer’s crimes have resulted in judgments or settlements topping $1 million.
