Family sues Carmel Catholic school for inaction on son’s harassment, assault

CARMEL, Ind. (WISH) — Administrators of a Carmel Catholic school and the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana face a lawsuit from a family that says its son was repeatedly harassed sexually, assaulted and threatened, but nothing was done.

A Noblesville law firm, Metzger Rosta, said a news release that the lawsuit, filed in Hamilton Superior Court 2. does not name the family to protect the identity of the minor child.

In addition to the diocese, the lawsuit was filed against the superintendent of the diocese’s schools, Trudy Schouten Young: the Rev. Richard Doerr, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church and School; the school principal, Tim Fletcher; and the assistant principal, Deanna Cotter.

The release said the harassment against the family’s son began in seventh grade and intensified during his recently finished school year, when it became sexual in nature. The boy has been in the schools from kindergarten to eighth grade, the lawsuit said.

The family says students repeatedly threatened to pull down the boy’s pants, physically attacked him in a locker room, exposed him in front of his gym class of both male and female students, and made graphic threats of sexual violence against his 10-year-old sister.

The release said, “Despite repeated reports from the family, teachers, ...