TOLEDO, Ohio — Three victims and their parents have sued Ottawa Hills Local Schools over the district's handling of the case of Ronald Stevens, a former Ottawa Hills employee convicted of sexually abusing several teenage boys in October of last year.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 30 in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, aims to hold the district accountable for its "policies, procedures, actions and inactions" that victims say enabled the abuse.
A judge sentenced Stevens to a combined life sentence with a minimum sentence of 101 years after a jury found him guilty of more than 30 charges, including multiple counts of rape.
Prosecutors said the crimes occurred between August 2017 and November 2019 and involved at least six teenage boys. Most were Ottawa Hills students at the time, and all of the alleged victims were friends of Stevens' son, who would reportedly go over to his home for sleepovers.
This new lawsuit, which involves three of the victims and their parents, accuses school leaders of failing to contact the abused students, and even rejecting repeated requests to meet. It goes on to accuse the district of being "deliberately indifferent" to the abuse in various respects including, in part:
- Failing to take appropriate remedial action following the prior sexual abuse by another member of the janitorial staff;
- Failing to conduct an appropriate investigation of prior complaints pertaining to Ronald Stevens
- Permitting Ronald Stevens to have his office windows blacked out, in spite of concerns voiced by other employees;
- Dismissing one plaintiff's concerns and responding that the district "has too much on its plate to deal with this."
"We repeatedly asked the district to sit down and meet with us to discuss what went wrong, how we could get this fixed so that it doesn't happen again, and get these kids some help, and they rejected our request," Attorney D. Casey Talbott said.
Plaintiffs claim that both the actions and inaction of the Ottawa Hills school district led to further abuse, which resulted in one person attempting suicide. The lawsuit goes on to say that as a result, this person suffered physical, mental and emotional injury, leading them to incur medical bills and future counseling expenses as a result of the "severe trauma."
The victims are seeking more than $25,000 per count, an award of actual, compensatory, special and punitive damages as well as an award for costs and attorney's fees.
You can read the full filing below:
WTOL reached out to the Ottawa Hills School District for a statement regarding the lawsuit. District Superintendent Adam Fineske said, "We do not comment on matters of pending litigation."