A family who says their son was sexually abused by a now-deceased South St. Paul school teacher intends to sue the school district for negligence.
Jeff Anderson & Associates, the St. Paul law office that is representing the family, has served the school district with a notice of claim — a move that Anderson says is a first step that a civil lawsuit likely will be filed either at the state or federal level.
“Our investigation and the police investigation reveals to us that the school district was negligent in allowing (former teacher) Aric Babbitt to engage in and continue what we call perilous practices in violation of some of their own protocols for safety of children,” Anderson said Wednesday.
Anderson said that his law office also is communicating with other families who allege their children were sexually abused by Babbitt and his husband, Matthew Deyo. Anderson said the family in the pending lawsuit wants to remain anonymous.
On Wednesday, the school district’s attorney, Amy Mace, said in an email to the Pioneer Press that the district received the notice of claim on Jan. 25 and that the district “denies any liability in connection with the alleged criminal acts.”
Mace said information that the district collected on Babbitt through its own investigation is classified as private personnel data by the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, so the district cannot comment further.
In late December, South St. Paul police completed a nearly four-month criminal investigation into sex abuse allegations against Babbitt, 36, and Deyo, 40. The investigation concluded that the couple had sexual and other inappropriate conduct with eight teen boys over a period of several years.
The criminal investigation began Aug. 14 after a 16-year-old boy and his parents went to South St. Paul police to report “an ongoing sexual relationship” between the boy and Babbitt and Deyo. The couple was friends with the boy’s parents, and Babbitt was the boy’s former elementary school teacher, volunteer work supervisor and mentor, according to court documents.
The boy said Babbitt had agreed to be a mentor for him when the boy came out as gay to his family.
Babbitt, who was a teacher at Lincoln Center Elementary for 14 years beginning in 2002, was put on paid leave by South St. Paul schools on Aug. 17. He was found dead eight days later in Washington state alongside Deyo; they died of a murder-suicide. Neither man had been charged with a crime.
Babbitt’s father, Dana Babbitt, was superintendent of the South St. Paul school district from 2003 to 2007 and previously was the principal at South St. Paul High School.
In a statement at the beginning of the investigation, Dana Babbitt said: “Our families want to express the sincere grief and sadness we are feeling for the innocent people affected by the actions of Aric Babbitt and Matthew Deyo. We are devastated by the pain and suffering they have caused, and we pray for the healing of those families involved.”
The boys were abused at the married couple’s home, at Aric Babbitt’s family cabin in Crow Wing County, at Minneapolis hotels and at Deyo’s parents’ farm south of Hastings, according to the police report.
In many instances, Babbitt and Deyo gave their victims alcohol and marijuana. They also bought phones and other devices, encouraging the alleged victims to communicate with them and use them to watch pornography, police say. The final police report redacted the names of the victims.
In addition, the police report included details about videos investigators found, including ones that show Babbitt filming himself masturbating in a Lincoln Center Elementary School bathroom and in his empty classroom, near a student’s desk.
Anderson said Wednesday that school district administrators should have should have caught “the red flags” and “dangerous signals.” He declined to elaborate.
“Whether the abuse happened on or off school grounds doesn’t change the fact that there were signs and signals that this teacher was using his position as a teacher to access kids and groom parents and kids,” he said.
Anderson and his law office are widely known for filing hundreds of lawsuits or notices of claims on behalf of alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse since the state’s Child Victim Act went into effect May 25, 2013. Other cases involve the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, several Lutheran churches, other denominations, the Boy Scouts, public and private schools, summer camps, youth organizations, group homes and some individuals.
“Our focus is on institutional failure … the failure of the institutions to protect the kids,” Anderson said.