Lawsuit alleging sexual harassment in Brownsboro ISD will move forward

TYLER – A U.S. district judge filed an order on Monday effectively denying Brownsboro ISD’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges the high school baseball team has a “long-standing hazing tradition.” That’s according to our news partner KETK. The case, which alleges upper classmen on the baseball team openly discussed hazing and sexually assaulted a freshman student on the bus in the presence of the head baseball coach during the 2019-2020 school year, is set to move forward. Claims that the district created a heightened risk for students to be sexually assaulted were denied by the judge.

The judge’s order determined the lawsuit has sufficiently argued that Brownsboro ISD knew about the harassment and was “deliberately indifferent” to it. The district has argued to the court that its only legal responsibility in the case is to investigate, and that the head coach at the time of the allegations did not have the authority to stop the harassment. However, the court has concluded the lawsuit has made a reasonable argument the head coach at the time “had the power to halt the abuse.”