CHARLESTON, SC — A Charleston high school math teacher tried to coerce a student into sexual acts, then gave him a poor grade when he refused, according to a new lawsuit filed in the sensational case that began last year with the arrest of the teacher, Jennifer Danielle Olajire-Aro, 27.
Olajire-Aro, a pre-calculus and algebra teacher at Charleston’s Burke High School, was arrested in December and charged with one count of sexual battery with a student 16 or 17 years of age, according to court records. The criminal case against her is pending.
The lawsuit claims the defendant Charleston County School District “has a history of employees engaging in romantic relationships with students, committing sexual acts on students, storing and viewing pornography on CCSD issued computers, and the like.”
The student, referred to as John Doe, was enrolled in Olajire-Aro’s math class in 2017 when she began flirting with him and talking to him about sex, before, during and after class, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Charleston County Circuit Court.
The complaint says the teacher “encouraged and coerced” John Doe to have sex with her at school, in her vehicle, at her home and, at least once, in the presence of her 10-month-old baby, and sent inappropriate messages to him on her phone and in a social media applications. The teacher’s advances were “public, direct and obvious,” the lawsuit states, and the student began skipping math class to avoid both his teacher and his peers.
When the student refused Olajire-Aro’s advances, she reminded him “that she alone controlled what grade he would receive in her class,” according to the complaint. The teacher “acted on her threat” and changed his math grade from 98 to 89, according to the lawsuit.
The case blew open when John Doe explained his lower grade to his mother. Olajire-Aro was arrested in Dec. 19, 2017, three days before school was scheduled to dismiss for winter break.
In an unrelated case, a former employee at Dunston Primary Schools in North Charleston is accused of downloading child pornography on a school-issued computer and later molesting students in his office, The Post and Courier reported.
The Charleston County School District continues to face a maelstrom of criticism over its handling of the investigation, which dragged on for about two years — during which time the employee at the center of it, Marvin Gethers, was promoted from student concern specialist to a higher-paid position of parent advocate, according to a bombshell report by television station WCSC last month. He was arrested on child pornography charges in 2016, but died before his case could go to trial.
Gethers wasn’t fired or suspended, even though two children came forward and said he had sexually assaulted them during the investigation, WCSC reported.
Pornography was discovered on his laptop during a routine virus scan by a district IT employee in January 2014.
“I would like to know who knew what when, and who failed to act,” Beverly Gadson-Birch said Monday at a school board meeting, The Post and Courier reported.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in Charleston County District Court on behalf of the student and his mother accuses the Charleston County School District of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They are asking a jury to award actual and compensatory damages, including medical and health care expenses.
Mark A. Peper, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told The Post and Courier that if the school district “won’t fix the problem, the courts will.”
“Where the safety, protection and well-being of our students is paramount, acts such as these and others by employees under the direct supervision of the CCSD are outrageous, and must be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable,” he said.
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