A sex abuse lawsuit filed against the Keokuk School District by a former student has been dismissed. District Court Judge Michael Schilling's ruling came down to the timing of the lawsuit.
The former student filed the lawsuit in south Lee County District Court in Feb. 2013 under the pseudonym, Jane Doe II. In it, she claimed that she had been sexually abused by former teacher and coach Gina Sisk for two years, starting in 2009.
She sought damages from the district, former High School Principal Michelle Lukavsky and Sisk, who was dropped from the lawsuit in April 2014.
The district fought the lawsuit, claiming that Doe did not file it before the statute of limitations expired. Schilling agreed with that assessment, dismissing the case in a 26-page ruling filed Thursday morning.
Schilling said state law requires a lawsuit against a municipality, such as a school district, be filed within two years of a loss or injury.
Doe believes she did file the lawsuit within the required time frame because she did not discover the impact of the abuse until later in 2011 and because she said the abuse was continual through early 2011.
Schilling rejected those assertions in his ruling. He said when Doe discovered the impact was not relevant and he said the abuse did not qualify as continual.
He also said he could not consider the claims against Sisk in determining the statute of limitations because of her dismissal from the lawsuit, which essentially dismissed all of the claims against her.
Schilling said that left him with only the claims against the district and Lukavsky to consider. He said since they all occurred outside of the two year "window," he had to dismiss. Schilling repeatedly referred to a decision issued by the Iowa Supreme Court last year in a similar case in Henry County, Ia.
In that situation, a former student in the New London School District accused Gina Sisk of sexually abusing her. The justices ruled that the statute of limitations also expired in that case, prompting it to be dismissed as well.
