Drama Teacher Sex Abuse Suit Against Lake Forest High School Permitted To Proceed

LAKE FOREST, IL — A lawsuit filed by six former Lake Forest High School students who say they were sexually abused by David Miller, the school's longtime drama teacher, can continue after a federal judge denied the district's attempt to dismiss it.

The half dozen male alumni say district officials were aware that Miller used his position of authority to abuse teenage boys at his house, on school property and on school trips, but they intentionally failed to take action.

The abuse occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the suit, and attorneys for Lake Forest Community High School District 115 had asked a judge to toss it out on account of the statute of limitations.

But in a 36-page ruling filed Saturday, U.S. District John Kness said allegations that the district covered up abuse by its former teacher could mean the normal deadlines for filing a lawsuit do not apply due to a legal concept called the "fraudulent concealment doctrine."

Under that doctrine, a person has five years from the time they discover they have been harmed to file a lawsuit if the liable person is found to have fraudulently concealed it. According to the students' suit, the six men suppressed their memories of the abuse until at least July 2019.

This allows the students to get around laws limiting the length of time during which lawsuits can be filed. Otherwise, depending on when they were born, relevant state law would have blocked them from filing the suits after turning 20 or 30.

The former students specifically accuse the school district of having a policy and practice not to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct, not to keep staffers accused of sexual misconduct away from students and to withhold from parents and students information about sexual abuse by its teachers.

All this, the judge said, alleged created "an environment that allowed Miller's abuse to flourish.".

In seeking to dismiss the students' complaint, which was filed in May 2021, District 115's attorneys argued Illinois law makes school officials immune from lawsuits in such cases, even if the suit had been filed sooner.

"The District relies on several cases for the proposition that a school, as a matter of law, owes no duty to protect a student who was allegedly sexually abused by a teacher," Kness said.

The judge found those examples "unpersuasive" because they failed to examine the special relationship between a school and student, one where it could be found that the district's position of influence and superiority over students makes it more responsible.

"Although [the former students] will ultimately bear the burden to prove fraudulent concealment," he said, "[they have] sufficiently made out a claim under the fraudulent concealment doctrine to survive the motion-to-dismiss stage."

At this point in a case, all the allegations in a complaint as assumed to be true, and plaintiffs do not need to make more specific allegations.

Attorneys for Lake Forest High School also argued that the district is immune from "all personnel and investigatory decisions including the decision not to investigate allegations of Miller's conduct or terminate miller's employment, as well as its decision to allow Miller to 'quietly resign.'"

Because the alumni's complaint does not specify which district employee made the decision not to investigate or fire Miller, the judge would be unable to determine if public employee immunity should apply.

"Accordingly, the Court defers its decision on the District’s immunity under the Tort Immunity Act and the Illinois School Code until the parties have developed a more complete factual record," Kness said.

As Lake Forest Patch has previously reported, Miller ended his 43-year tenure teaching at the school in 2009, when then-Superintendent Harry Griffith asked him to resign after Lake Forest police showed him dozens of inappropriate sexual messages Miller had exchanged with a former student.

Griffith never reported allegations that Miller plied boys with alcohol, engaged in open-mouth kissing and "sexualized full-body hugging" to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services or the Illinois State Board of Education, according to a 2021 report commissioned by the district.

Not only did administrators never notify the community that students had told them they were employing a sexual predator, they never took steps to remove Miller's name from the school theater, where it remained until June 2020 — after the allegations of abuse were revealed publicly by some of the alumni who later filed suit.

Ian Alexander, the former students' attorney, told Patch that he expects to obtain records showing the district was for many years aware of Miller's abuse.

While district representatives claimed that the report they commissioned was an "independent investigation," Alexander said district officials have nonetheless withheld it, citing attorney-client privilege.

"They let a predator operate at this school for 30 years. It really is as simple as that," Alexander said.

"They knew what he was up to and they condoned his behavior by giving him awards and by exalting him and living off the prestige that they felt that he created because he had this program," he said. "And they just didn't do anything to protect kids that they knew were in danger."

Alexander is also representing a former LFHS student who says she was sexually abused by Martin. Her lawsuit survived a motion to dismiss last year, and court records show Alexander and Martin's attorney have been meeting to negotiate a potential settlement in the case, with the next conference scheduled for Oct. 11.

Attorneys hired by the district identified 14 former LFHS students who either self-identified or were described by others as victims or survivors of abuse by Miller, but only one of them agreed to speak with investigators.

While Kness largely denied the district's motion to dismiss, which Miller had joined, the former students and representatives of the school district came to an agreement to remove the district as a defendant from three of the suit's 13 counts — childhood sexual abuse, battery and "due press/state-created danger."

Patch requested comment from Miller's attorney, Steven Fine, but did not receive a response.

In a statement, Lake Forest High School spokesperson Melissa Oakley said that Kness' order "dismissed three counts against District 115 for legal insufficiency."

However, according to the judge's order, those three counts were dropped as a result of an agreement between the parties — not as a result of "legal insufficiency " — and, in fact, attorneys for the school district lost every argument they contested, as the judge allowed the plaintiffs to continue pursuing every count they wanted.

Read more:

• Sex Abuse Suits Blocked By Statute Of Limitations, LFHS Argues
• 2 Sex Abuse Suits Filed Against Lake Forest High School, Teachers
• Sexual Misconduct Investigation Into Ex-Drama Teacher Released
• Ex-LFHS Teacher Accused Of 'Inappropriate' Contact With Students