Students, parents file lawsuit in federal court against Madison School District, David Kruchten
Seven former East High School students and parents of two current students filed a federal civil lawsuit Friday against the Madison School District and a former teacher recently sentenced to 12 years in prison, for injuries sustained after the teacher planted hidden cameras in their hotel bathrooms.
“The high school girls felt tremendously violated and are still dealing with those emotions,” attorney Jeff Scott Olson said. “What you would expect a responsible school district to do is to be relatively transparent when addressing the situation.”
Instead, Olson said, the school district has structured its internal investigations surrounding the incident to avoid releasing the details to families based on attorney-client privilege.
The district has looked for ways to share as little as possible with them rather than looking for ways to help them heal, Olson said. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.
The Wisconsin State Journal filed an open records request for reports from the district’s third-party investigation into two camera incidents, one involving former teacher David Kruchten and a separate discovery that hidden cameras were once installed in an East High School coach’s office, but both requests were denied due to attorney-client privilege. The district spent roughly $38,000 to conduct both internal investigations.