A former high school custodian’s prolonged campaign of sexual violence against one of his coworkers went ignored for more than a year, according to a lawsuit filed against the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township on May 27.
The man identified only by his initials raped his coworker five times, stopping only when she became pregnant, the complaint said. IndyStar does not name victims of assault or abuse without their consent.
“(The plaintiff) has suffered and will continue to suffer mentally and physically due to the shocking and inexcusable lack of protection she received from the Defendants,” the lawsuit reads in part.
In April 2024, an 18-year-old woman began working at Ben Davis High School. An older male coworker’s unwanted hugs quickly made her uncomfortable, but the head custodian told her to “leave it alone,” according to court documents.
His behavior soon escalated, court documents show. The man began touching her breasts and butt while at work. In late May 2024, the woman reported his sexual misconduct to another supervisor, but to no avail.
In June 2024, the head custodian assigned the woman to work in the same area as the man she’d reported for harassment, according to court documents.
Several weeks into that assignment, the man asked the plaintiff to step outside with him for a break. She said no, but he took her phone and keys, prompting her to follow him outside.
That’s where the man whisked her up in a fireman’s carry and took her to a parked SUV. He assaulted her for 40 minutes while another male coworker watched from the driver’s seat. He then pulled a gun on her, the lawsuit says.
After she’d been released by her captors, the woman called police, and the school’s security officer responded, the lawsuit said.
The alleged perpetrator and his accomplice came to the classroom and played the assault off as “merely a prank,” according to the lawsuit. The head custodian then arrived and “told the school officer that everything was fine, and that she would take care of it.”
The woman then asked her supervisor if she could go home. The head custodian “refused and instructed her to finish the remaining six hours of her shift, warning her she would be terminated if she left the school before her shift ended,” the lawsuit says.
The woman asked the officer to look at the surveillance camera that would have captured the perpetrator carrying her over his shoulder, but “the officer told her that he was not authorized to do so without a police investigation,” the lawsuit says.
“Our client comes back into the building after being assaulted, with blood on her pants, and having urinated on herself,” attorney Greg Laker told IndyStar. “And the school looks her in the eye and says, ‘you have no evidence that this happened.'”
‘There would be no purpose served in reporting the rape’
The woman continued to be scheduled alongside the man she’d accused of rape, and neither he nor his accomplice were disciplined, the lawsuit says.
In September 2024, she began feeling dizzy while on the clock. She sat down, and the man began taking her clothes off. She believes that the man slipped a drug into her water bottle to induce physical weakness, the lawsuit says.
At that point, she’d already reported the man at least three times for sexual harassment and assault. She didn’t want to lose her job, and she “determined there would be no purpose served in reporting the rape to the Defendants.”
Over the next few months, the pattern continued: she’d suddenly feel extremely weak at work, and the man would rape her.
She became pregnant as a result. There is “no question” that the assailant is the child’s father, as she had never had any other sexual partners, according to the lawsuit.
The woman decided to covertly record an assault with her cell phone. She showed it to the school’s assistant principal, rather than her own supervisor, and he was fired in fall 2025.
The head custodian and the man accused of watching the June 2024 attack are both on administrative leave, according to Jeannine Templeman, the chief communications officer for MSD of Wayne Township.
“This is an active investigation, and the district is fully cooperating with authorities,” Templeman wrote in an email to IndyStar.
The woman seeks an unspecified amount of damages from the school district and Ben Davis High School. No attorneys are listed for either defendant in online court records, and neither party has filed an answer.
At the time of publication, no criminal charges have been filed in connection with the woman’s allegations. IMPD is investigating.
“The bottom line is, the school’s got a duty to create a safe environment for their employees,” attorney Greg Laker said.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Ben Davis High School sued over allegations of repeated workplace rape
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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