WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WAOW) — A former teacher in the Mosinee School District who lost her job following accusations that she sexually assaulted a female student is now suing the district after a judge threw the case out due to lack of evidence.
Christy Mathis filed the suit in federal court back in January and is asking for a jury trial, according to a report from WAOW TV. She claims that her civil rights were violated and that she was maliciously prosocuted.
Mathis had been accused of inappropriately touching a student during class in 2018, but the charges were dropped in August of 2021.
She claims she had been enforcing the school’s policy regarding cell phones in the classroom.
Mathis and her husband have named multiple defendants in the lawsuit including the school district, Superintendent David Munoz, School Board President Kevin Hermening, Middle School Principal Brad Grube, the City of Mosinee and its police department, and School Resource Officer Eric Krause. The student’s parents are also named in the complaint.
According to the complaint:
On March 25, 2021, Mathis was walking around the classroom during third-hour art class, when she noticed the student was looking at her lap. Suspecting the student was on her cellphone, Mathis walked up behind her, placed her hand on the student’s shoulder, and looked at her lap.
There, Mathis saw the phone and asked her to put it away. When the student did not do so immediately, Mathis reached over and asked for the phone. Mathis then placed it on the student’s table, telling the student to either leave it there or in her pocket.
That same day, the student and two of her friends went to the school’s assistant principal, Paul Rheinschmidt, with the allegations of assault. He then brought their allegations to Grube.
At that point, Grube spoke with the school’s police resource officer, Krause, who told Grube to interview other students in the class and then “circle back” with him.
Before doing those interviews, Grube called Mathis to his office and told her she was being sent home because of a student complaint. However, he did not provide any other information or details about that complaint. Because of that lack of detail, Mathis did not understand the nature of the complaint until the next day, when Grube again met with her.
It was at that meeting that the principal said there were actually two complaints: one claiming Mathis had placed her hands on a student’s shoulders, and the other that she had touched a student’s back and buttocks.
Grube also told Mathis while some interviews with students had already been done, the rest would not occur until April 5, after spring break. At that point, concerns were raised that the extended period between interviews would give accusers and witnesses time to talk over their stories to ensure they “lined up.”
Mathis was also required to write a statement about the incident; in it, she said “she could not recall anything” that would be deemed as “inappropriately touching a student.”
On April 5, Mathis was arrested; at the police station, she was told who made the accusations.
The lawsuit claims the investigation done by both the school and police department were deficient in numerous ways:
- On the day the accusation occurred, just two of the students in the class claimed they saw Mathis touch the girl inappropriately, and those two were “close friends” of the accuser.
- Krause never asked Mathis for her side of the story prior to her arrest.
- The two students who backed up the student’s claim later approached Krause, saying “Mathis was a person and felt bad because this was her life, her job and they felt this was going too far and they felt overwhelmed about the entire situation.” However, the lawsuit alleges he did not consider they might want to recant their allegations.
The lawsuit also claims Krause received at least two emails calling into doubt the allegations. One said “a group of students were lying” because they disliked Mathis and “wanted her kicked out of the school.” The email also claimed the students were planning to do “this to other teachers.” That email was received on April 6.
A second student also told the police officer she overheard the accuser say the accusation “was all just a joke, and that she was kidding.” However, Krause dismissed that student, saying it was “hearsay.”
In her lawsuit, Mathis said Krause never questioned the accuser or her two close friends about the accuser’s cellphone use, even in followup interviews with them, because he was not properly trained in how to investigate sexual assault cases.
That lack of training was due to the negligence of the Mosinee Police Department’s retention and supervision of Krause, the complaint reads.
Based on the investigation, the Mosinee School Board terminated Mathis’ contract during its July 12 meeting. The next month, Munoz barred Mathis and her husband from school property. The lawsuit claims these actions tilted public opinion against her, and made the allegations more believable.
The district released the following statement to WAOW TV:
The District acknowledges that the Board did hold a separate proceeding concerning the events that gave rise to the criminal charges against Ms. Mathis and did discharge Ms. Mathis in those proceedings. However, Ms. Mathis was reportedly advised not to attend the meeting. Accordingly, Ms. Mathis did not appear. The legal standards that apply in criminal cases do not apply to school board discharge proceedings; the Board has the authority to intervene to protect District students and sanction any inappropriate conduct, regardless of whether it is a crime.
The Board’s process was fair and its decisions were based on the evidence that the Board had before it. The District did want to make sure that the public, its parents, and its children know that the District stands by its decisions, and is confident that its decisions were lawful and appropriate.
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