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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Abused by Brazen JROTC Teacher, Girl Says

MEDFORD, Ore. (CN) - A brazen junior ROTC instructor digitally penetrated a high school girl's vagina as they sat in a room with other students, the girl claims in Federal Court.

Jane Doe claims JROTC instructor Kenneth Gardner had a history of sexual misconduct with students. She sued him, the Klamath County School District, its Superintendent Greg Thede, Henley High School principal Jennifer Sedlock, assistant principal Jack Lee, and Gardner's JROTC supervisor John Woodward.

Doe, who has a single, disabled mother, claims Gardner gained their trust so he could sexually abuse her.

In March 2012, Gardner took his JROTC team to an overnight shooting competition, Doe says in the complaint. Rather than housing his students in a barracks-style facility with the other shooting teams, he checked them into a hotel.

"On one night there, Jane Doe and other kids from her group were in a hotel bedroom watching television when Gardner entered and sat on a couch next to Jane Doe," the complaint states. "Gardner covered himself and Jane Doe with a blanket and slipped his hand underneath Jane Doe's pajama bottoms and fondled her vagina while Jane Doe and other students in the hotel room were watching television. Jane Doe froze, not knowing how to react, and then became physically sick when she returned to her room, unable to sleep from the fear she felt."

Doe claims that Gardner many times "forcibly hugged plaintiff, kissed her neck, pulled her pants down, fondled her vagina and buttocks, digitally penetrated her anus and ejaculated while he forced Jane Doe to touch his erect penis."

She claims that Gardner told her that if she reported him, her military career would be over. She finally did notify school administrators, who shunned her and took her out of ROTC, costing her a college scholarship, she says in the complaint.

She seeks punitive damages for constitutional violations, vicarious liability, sexual battery, false imprisonment, fraud and negligence.

She is represented by Thomas Petersen, with Black, Chapman, Webber and Stevens.

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