Former Western Mennonite School Student Sues for $5.5 Million, Says School Knew Teacher Had Been Accused of Sexual Abuse

By Stuart Tomlinson
The Oregonian
March 3, 2015

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2015/03/former_western_mennonite_schoo.html

Western Mennonite School in Salem. (O’Donnell Clark & Crew)

A 19-year-old woman who was sexually abused by her Salem-area high school teacher is suing the school, the woman's attorneys said Tuesday.

The suit, which seeks $5.5 million in damages, was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court against the Western Mennonite School and the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference.

The suit alleges that school officials hired teacher Matthew Yoder "despite being aware of previous sexual abuse allegations against him and widespread concerns about Yoder's inappropriate interactions with students," a news release from attorneys with the Portland law firm of O'Donnell Clark & Crew says.

Yoder, 32, was arrested on numerous sex abuse charges on Valentine's Day 2012. He pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree sex abuse in March 2014 in a Yamhill County courtroom. He was sentenced to 32 months in prison.

Matthew Yoder.

The Western Mennonite School fired Yoder after learning about the suspected abuse, school Principal Darrel Camp told The Oregonian in February 2012.

Camp said the school was shaken by Yoder's arrest.

"It's unexpected," Camp said at the time. "Someone who's trusted and an educator. You don't expect that."

On Tuesday, school officials declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The school has 237 students in sixth through 12th grades. Yoder, who was hired in 2008, was one of the school's 20 full-time teachers.

"This is a story of failure after failure of this school to observe simple measures to protect kids," attorney Peter Janci said. "We intend to prove that Western Mennonite School administrators knew prior to hiring Yoder that he had previously been accused of sexually abusing several children and we intend to prove that even after his hiring, there were red flags everywhere."

The woman's attorneys say the former student enrolled at the school as a 15-year-old freshman in 2010. Yoder, then a 27-year-old social studies teacher, gained the girl's trust and then subjected her to repeated sexual abuse from late 2010 through the end of 2011, they allege. Yoder, attorneys say, threatened the girl to keep the abuse a secret.

The victim, identified by the initials M.L., released a statement Tuesday saying that even "though my abuser has been punished, it was the school's policy that allowed this to happen. My goal in this lawsuit is to ensure that no other kids at this school have to suffer abuse like I did."

According to the woman's attorneys, the Mennonite Church USA recently devoted the entire issue of the Mennonite Quarterly Review to the issue of sexual abuse within the Mennonite Church.