Family sues district for employing abuser

• Tweet

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Parents of four children are claiming in court an Alabaman school district knowingly employed a registered sex offender who then molested their children.

Courthouse News Service said four Jane Does and their parents have sued the Shelby County Board of Education, the teacher and bus driver Dan Acker and two school board members in federal court.

Acker is now in prison after he admitted molesting the fifth plaintiff in the case, Kristin Hurt, now 19, when she was a child, Courthouse News Service said.

After the incident, the state told the school board Acker was an abuser, but the school kept him on the staff, Courthouse News Service said.

Last year, Acker admitted he went on to abuse 20 more children.

Acker was sentenced in May 2012 to six 17-year terms in state prison for first-degree sexual abuse of a child and two 10-year terms of first-degree sexual abuse.

Hurt and the Jane Does seek punitive damages for Title IX violations, constitutional violations, privacy invasion, assault and battery, outrage, negligence and loss of consortium, Courthouse News reported.