SEATTLE — A former Garfield High School student is suing Seattle Public Schools, alleging that district employees failed to prevent two of its coaches from emotionally and sexually abusing her throughout middle and high school. The lawsuit claims that one coach, Walter Jones, repeatedly raped the student while she was a young teenager and that a second coach, Marvin Hall, sexually exploited the student from the time she was 17 until after her 21st birthday.
Both men face criminal charges for the behavior outlined in the civil lawsuit against the school district.
Filed in King County Superior Court in July, the complaint alleges that school district employees, including a board member, ignored their own policies and turned a blind eye to inappropriate behavior. The district is being sued for negligence, failure to report sexual abuse and “extreme and outrageous conduct” for failing to prevent abuse and discrimination based on disability.
“At every turn, SPS failed in its most fundamental and basic duties and permitted one of its own special needs students to become the victim of extreme sexual exploitation by multiple authority figures at the school, while bereft of any protection or intervention whatsoever,” reads the complaint. “The consequences of these horrific acts and of Defendant SPS’s failure to protect [the former student] will affect her for the rest of her life.”
The plaintiff is identified only by initials in the lawsuit. It is the policy of The Seattle Times not to name victims of sexual assault.
A spokesperson for the school district said she was aware of the complaint but can’t comment on the specifics of the pending legal claim in the early phase of litigation. The spokesperson said district officials are also aware of the ongoing criminal and civil proceedings involving the conduct of the two coaches in the lawsuit, including a former SPS athletics staff member.
“We do not condone any type of behavior that harms students, staff, or our community,” she said. “The district will continue to work actively with all school leaders to ensure student safety remains the focus of our work.”
Both coaches are no longer employed by SPS, the spokesperson confirmed.
The lawsuit states that coaches Jones, 47, and Hall, 50, used their positions of authority at SPS to sexually exploit and emotionally abuse the plaintiff for almost a decade.
Jones is charged in King County Superior Court with two counts of felony rape of a minor. Hall is charged with sexual misconduct with a minor.
In the civil lawsuit against the district, the plaintiff alleges Jones repeatedly raped her until she turned 15. Hall’s coercion and abuse began when the student was 17 and continued into her early 20s, the lawsuit states.
Rebecca Bradlow, one of the attorneys representing Jones, said “Mr. Jones is innocent and we are confident a jury will find him not guilty when all the facts come to light at trial.”
The attorney representing Hall did not return phone calls requesting comment.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff was recognized for her basketball talent when she was 13 and was tapped to practice with the Garfield High School team. Practice included working out in the weight room where Jones, who the complaint states had been previously marked by SPS as “do not rehire” after he was fired from Ballard High School, was working as a volunteer weightlifting coach.
Jones repeatedly raped the former student over the course of two years, often in the weight room or in other places on campus, according to the complaint. The lawsuit claims that Jones was raping the former student three to four times a week for two years. At certain points, the lawsuit alleges, he threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone about his assaults.
According to a SPD investigation cited in the lawsuit, other employees at SPS found some of Jones’ behavior inappropriate but didn’t know about the sexual assaults. The district’s athletic director also knew that Jones was working as a coach despite not being approved to do so, the complaint states.
Before the sexual grooming, assaults and exploitation by the coaches allegedly started, the former student was identified by the district as a particularly vulnerable young woman who suffered from an “emotional disability.” The complaint defines emotional disability as “a broad term used in the field of special education to describe a range of mental health issues, including emotional instability, behavioral challenges, social difficulties, and academic struggles.”
The student continued to thrive on the basketball team but struggled academically and socially, the lawsuit states. She had an individualized education plan to provide her academic and social support in school, according to the complaint.
When the former student was 17, the lawsuit alleges that Hall, the assistant coach of Garfield’s boys basketball team, began grooming and sexually exploiting her. The lawsuit states Hall was married with six children at the time. He led the former student to believe they were in a romantic relationship together, according to the lawsuit.
“Even though Hall was not coaching the girls’ program at the time, Defendant SPS permitted Hall to regularly access the coaches’ office within the girls’ locker room, which he used to sexually abuse [the former student,]” the complaint reads.
Around the end of 2017, Hall began assisting Garfield’s girls team.
Court documents contain copies of text messages the plaintiff’s attorneys argue show that Hall was manipulative and demeaning. At times, Hall complimented the student’s basketball talent. “I was like look at my girlfriend” [sic] he texted when she performed well on the court. At other times, in texts cited in the lawsuit, he curses at the student and says he never wants to see her again and never wants to touch her again. “Fat,” he texted her one time when she texted him that she was hungry.
Hall also sexually abused the former student in various locations on Garfield’s campus while she was a student and after she graduated, according to the lawsuit.
The former Garfield student went on to attend community college out-of-state, but Hall maintained a relationship with her via text messaging, according to records of those conversations presented in the lawsuit. She grew deeply depressed and attempted to kill herself by overdosing on pills, according to the lawsuit. After she was released from the hospital, she transferred to a college in a different state. Hall began visiting her there and flying her back to Seattle as part of what the plaintiff’s attorneys argue was part of his ongoing manipulation and sexual exploitation of their client.
After another college transfer and a second suicide attempt, the former Garfield student revealed the abuse to a former teammate’s parent and a former assistant coach, the lawsuit states. The parent reported it to SPS’s athletic director and other SPS administrators, according to the complaint.
After Hall’s alleged abuse was disclosed in 2022, parents of players on the basketball team began informing district officials of other concerns about Hall’s behavior. SPS conducted an investigation, which revealed that school board member Michelle Sarju was aware that Hall had made “advances” toward a female student at a different district school in 2018 and 2019.
According to the SPS investigation cited in the lawsuit, Sarju did not report the student’s allegations to anyone within the district. Sarju told the district during the investigation that she had asked the student if she wanted to talk to someone about Hall but the student said no. The student was 18 at the time, but was 16 when the reported advances were made. Sarju declined to comment when contacted by a reporter.
“There is a long road ahead for my client. What we’ve seen from the school district so far is that they don’t care to fully recognize or appreciate what she’s gone through,” said Paul Sewell, one of the attorneys representing the former student. “It is our hope that they do and that’s why this case is being litigated right now.”
Currently, the attorneys are waiting on an answer from the district. A trial is expected to be held in about a year, Sewell said.
“It is one of the most tragic situations you could imagine happening in a school,” Sewell said. “And the ease with which this could’ve been prevented makes what she went through all the worse.”
