A.W. v. Lancaster County School District

0001 784 N.W.2d 907 (2010)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Joseph Siems entered Arnold Elementary School through the main entrance. Siems went past the office without signing in. For whatever reason, no one saw Siems come in the door. One teacher did ask Siems if she could help him find anything (because he looked out of place with a cigarette behind his ear and a backpack), but he ignored her. The teacher went directly to the office to see if anyone matching Siems' description had signed in. Two other teachers, Kelly Long and Connie Peters, saw Siems in the hallway. One of them (Long) asked Siems if she could help him. Siems did not respond, but after the question was repeated, Siems said he needed to use the restroom. Long pointed out a nearby restroom and told Siems that he needed to return to the main office after using the restroom. Siems went toward the restroom, and Long went to her classroom and used the telephone to report the incident to the main office. Long knew that there were no students in that restroom at the time. Long did not watch Siems to see where he went. One then saw him come out and go back down the hallway. Although no one saw him again, it is apparent that Siems went back down the hallway and into another restroom closer to the main entrance. Eventually, a student returned from the restroom and told a teacher that there was a bad man in the restroom that had pulled his pants down and performed oral sex on him. A teacher located Siems in a stall and initiated a school lockdown and a 911 call for police. School employees watched the restroom and police eventually detained Siems. C.B., a kindergarten student at Arnold Elementary School in northwest Lincoln, Nebraska, was sexually assaulted in a school restroom during the school day. C.B.'s mother, A.W. (P), sued the Lincoln Public Schools (D) on C.B.'s behalf, alleging that D's negligence permitted the assault to occur. The district court, however, entered summary judgment for LPS, reasoning that the assault was not foreseeable. This appeal resulted.