A $15 million federal lawsuit filed against Cleveland schools and school officials in December 2020 over the alleged repeated sexual assaults of a female student at Cleveland Middle School in 2019 has been dismissed after the girl’s attorney missed deadlines and failed to provide court-ordered case information to school system attorneys.
According to federal court records, the case in U.S. District Judge Travis R. McDonough’s court in Chattanooga was dismissed without prejudice to refiling it, meaning the plaintiffs can file the suit again if they wish under federal law cited in the matter.
School system attorney Jonathan Taylor acknowledged the dismissal but otherwise did not comment on the case or details of the most-recent action.
“On Feb. 28, 2022, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their case and all of their claims against the Cleveland City Schools Board of Education and all of its employees that we represented in this matter,” Taylor said Tuesday in an emailed statement. “As our filings in federal court reflect, we vigorously defended the Cleveland City Schools Board of Education and its employees against the claims made by the plaintiffs while this matter was pending before the court.”
J. Taylor Thomas, the girl’s attorney, argued against the judge entering a default judgment in favor of the defendants over the problems and placed the blame on himself. Thomas has recently been hired onto the city of Chattanooga staff of attorneys. He did not respond to requests for comment on the case but explained his version of events in court filings.