SC principal failed to student report abuse to police, lawsuit claims
The families of students who allege they were sexually assaulted by a former teacher at a Midlands charter school filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the school and district, according to a news release.
Sulaymaan Benoit, 33, was charged — for the third separate time this year in late October — with criminal sexual conduct with a minor. Investigators say that while leading an after-school program at Green Charter School of the Midlands, Benoit sexually assaulted several students on multiple occasions.
There are three families represented in the lawsuits with ages ranging for seven to 11-years old.
Now, attorneys for the latest reported victim say the school disregarded complaints by the minor and was negligent in retaining Benoit.
“Sulaymaan Benoit was the monster who assaulted this survivor,” said Attorney Bakari Sellers of the Strom Law Firm in a release. “It was Green Charter School of the Midlands whose neglect and failure enabled ... Benoit. They should have been protecting their students. Instead, they sheltered this abuser and it’s time to hold them accountable.”
In addition to Benoit, the school’s principal, Tina Shaw, was charged in February with failure to report child abuse and two counts of assault and battery, according to the release. Those charges stem from failing to report child abuse in connection with the charges pending against Benoit and for conducting two “improper searches” on two students, police said.
“Nothing can make up for what my client and her family have had to live through and the nightmares they will live with the rest of their lives,” Sellers said in the release. “But (Tuesday’s) arrest and charge are important steps towards justice and healing though they are only the first.”
