MAY 2017: School board votes to fire Harmon over abuse claim
Harmon argues the man’s allegations were false and that DPS officials should have known that. This news organization is not naming the accuser, based on its policy for victims of alleged sexual abuse.
Harmon’s claims in the lawsuit include racial discrimination, breach of contract and defamation. He is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, and he has requested a jury trial.
Current DPS Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said this week she could not comment on the lawsuit. Bullens also declined comment, while Corr and Harmon’s accuser could not immediately be reached.
MARCH 2017: Harmon on leave over allegation of decades-old abuse
The former student, now in his 40s, first told DPS officials and Dayton police in 2007 that Harmon had supplied him alcohol, photographed him nude, then sexually assaulted him at his home in 1990. No action was taken at the time by police or school officials. Harmon’s lawsuit claims both groups said the allegations weren’t credible.
In January 2016, the accuser allegedly assaulted Harmon when he saw him at a DPS sporting event. Questioned about that incident, the man repeated his allegations of years-old abuse by Harmon. Shortly after that, DPS placed Harmon on administrative leave from his job as a paraprofessional at Longfellow School.
DPS’ internal investigation, run by Bullens, found that the former student was “credible and truthful” about the abuse claim.
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Harmon’s lawsuit accuses Bullens of “intentionally conducting a fraudulent, sham investigation” and compiling a report containing “false and scandalous allegations” against Harmon.
The lawsuit says DPS never contacted Harmon to get his account of the case during the 13 months that he was on administrative leave. It also says that his accuser defamed him at Harmon’s April 2017 hearing before DPS officials, saying the accuser knew the allegations he made that day (and previously) were false.
Dayton’s school board voted to fire Harmon on May 24, 2017. In his lawsuit, Harmon claims DPS was guilty of pervasive harassment and discrimination against him based on his race, saying DPS treated “similarly situated non-minority employees more favorably” than they treated him.
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