A lawsuit filed last week has accused a Kansas City, Missouri, school of allowing a violent felon to pick up a 14-year-old student without prior authorization–resulting in him taking her to a motel and raping her.
The Kansas City Star reported that according to the lawsuit, Lincoln College Preparatory Academy allowed family friend Roy Andrews in May 2010 to take the teen student out of school. The girl’s parents said they never approved of Andrews to pick up their daughter because they were aware of his criminal history.
Records obtained by the newspaper revealed that Andrews, now 51, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for shooting a man in 1990. While imprisoned for the crime, he was convicted of possessing a controlled substance in a correctional institution and committing violence on a correctional employee.
Andrews was released from prison in 2006. In 2007, he was sentenced to 819 days in jail after pleading guilty to felony assault for shooting a man in Kansas City. Additionally, records revealed that Andrews’ DNA was linked in 2012 to a 1990 sodomy case involving an 11-year-old daughter and her mother. He pleaded guilty and was ultimately sentenced to 18 years behind bars.
CBS News reported that Andrews told the school that the victim’s parents wanted him to pick the girl up. However, the mother allegedly filled out a form of the beginning of the school year and didn’t list Andrews as someone who can pull the teen out of school.
Because of this gross oversight, Andrews was able to take the victim to a motel in Independence and rape her, according to the lawsuit. The family’s attorney, Gerald McGonagle, said the girl’s parents realized that something was wrong on the day in question and took her to the hospital.
“They took her to Children’s Mercy, where she had an exam done,” McGonagle said. “He gave her a venereal disease as well.”
The victim, now 21, is suing Kansas City Public Schools, a former Lincoln College Preparatory Academy principal, and a school attendance secretary for negligence and breach of duties. The lawsuit, filed in Jackson Circuit County Court, is seeking unspecified damages for the “tremendous pain and suffering” that she continues to experience.
While Andrews was charged in connection with the plaintiff’s rape in 2012, The Star said the case couldn’t be found in the court database.
“It took a bright, happy, very intelligent, well educated, articulate little girl and turned her into a shell of herself. She was shattered by the experience,” the woman’s lawyer, Rebecca Randles, told the newspaper.
“She wants to make sure this never happens to anybody again.”
[Featured Image: Roy Andrews/Jefferson City Correctional Center]
