A former Kentwood High School student is suing the Kent School District, claiming officials failed to protect her from sexual grooming and harassment by a former science teacher. The civil complaint, filed June 29 in King County Superior Court under the plaintiff's initials, seeks damages for emotional trauma, medical costs and other harm the lawsuit ties to conduct that allegedly occurred while she attended Kentwood from 2015 to 2017. The filing revisits criminal allegations that surfaced years ago and puts the district's handling of the case back under the microscope.
According to the Bellevue Reporter, the lawsuit alleges that former science teacher Timothy Brennan used Snapchat under a false name to send the student sexually explicit messages, nude photos and videos over an extended period. The complaint says the student eventually recognized Brennan after spotting a jacket and his red hair in an image and confronted him online. Charging documents cited in the suit state that Brennan admitted who he was and later begged her not to report him because it would "mess up his marriage and his job." The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of damages to be decided at trial.
Criminal background
King County prosecutors charged Brennan in January 2018 with two counts of communication with a minor for immoral purposes, and contemporaneous coverage described the Snapchat contact and the student's account that the communication began when she was a freshman. FOX 13 Seattle reported on the original criminal complaint, including the student's statements that Brennan invited her to his classroom and later twice showed up at her workplace. The criminal case moved into a plea and sentencing phase in 2019, a history the new civil filing points to as part of its case against the district.
District response and next steps
Plaintiff attorney Loren Cochran has said the timing of the civil lawsuit is tied in part to the survivor's son approaching school age and renewed worries about how safe campuses really are. The Bellevue Reporter notes that the Kent School District told the outlet it could not comment because the case is in active litigation. Cochran said the district has 20 days to file its official response.
The court has set a trial date of July 5, 2027. According to court records cited in coverage of the criminal case, Brennan pleaded guilty in April 2019, received a 364-day sentence with most of that time suspended, served roughly 50 days in King County jail and is required to register as a sex offender. The new civil case will unfold on a far slower schedule, with pretrial maneuvering and paperwork likely dominating the next couple of years.
Legal timeline and statutes
Washington changed its civil law on childhood sexual abuse in 2024. RCW 4.16.340 removed time limits for filing civil claims when the abuse happened on or after June 6, 2024. The conduct alleged in this lawsuit, however, dates to 2015-2017, so earlier statutes of limitation and discovery rules may still apply. That puts the timing of when the survivor fully understood the harm and what the district knew or should have known about Brennan at the center of the legal fight. Lawyers on both sides can expect months of document exchanges, depositions and procedural skirmishes before the case gets anywhere near a jury.
Broader context
Advocates and attorneys say civil lawsuits like this are increasingly common as survivors look to the courts to test whether institutions did enough to stop alleged abuse. The News Tribune has reported on separate cases in the Puget Sound region that allege long-running abuse and claim school districts failed to remove or properly monitor repeat offenders. The Kent lawsuit now joins a growing stack of cases that are pressuring districts to revisit how they supervise staff, respond to complaints and safeguard students.
Once the Kent School District files its answer, the case will enter the normal discovery phase, where internal emails, policies and witness testimony often become public in court filings. Key motions and legal arguments are likely to land on the docket over the coming months. For now, the suit sharply refocuses attention on how schools identify and respond to staff misconduct and what level of protection families can expect when they send their kids to class.
