A former Riverview High School student has filed a civil lawsuit against the Hillsborough County School Board and his onetime biology teacher, Brooke Anderson, alleging the district's negligence allowed her to abuse him inside her own classroom. The suit, filed August 11 in Hillsborough County circuit court, seeks $50,000 from the school board and $100,000 from Anderson, who is currently serving a 30-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to seven felony counts tied to the case.
The lawsuit, filed by attorneys at Leighton Panoff Law, was first reported by WTSP, which detailed the exact damages sought from each defendant: $50,000 from the school board on a commercial negligence theory, and $100,000 from Anderson herself for emotional distress and sexual battery. According to the New York Post, the complaint alleges the abuse left the former student with permanent psychological injuries and that he has since lost his faith in God.
The Post's reporting, citing the lawsuit, states the student ate lunch in his science teacher's classroom during his first two years at Riverview High School, and that Anderson began grooming him in 2021. Per the same account, Anderson sent the student sexually provocative nude images in April 2025 and messages of a graphic, sexual nature, escalating a relationship that ultimately crossed into physical abuse while he was still a year under Florida's age of consent.
Classroom Encounter Preceded Arrest
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Anderson was arrested on May 17, 2025, after a male student reported that explicit text messaging beginning in September 2024 escalated into multiple sexual encounters, including one inside her classroom before school hours on May 16, 2025 — the day before her arrest. Sheriff Chad Chronister said at the time that Anderson betrayed the trust of students and the community by exploiting a classroom meant for learning.
Anderson, now 28, later pleaded guilty to seven felony counts, including three counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, lewd conduct with a student, two counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor, and unlawful use of a communication device. She was sentenced to 30 months in state prison, 24 months of community service, and 10 years of probation. Under Florida Statute § 794.05, unlawful sexual activity with a minor is a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years in prison when an adult aged 24 or older engages in sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old, and state law explicitly bars consent or ignorance of age as a legal defense, according to the Brancato Law Firm, P.A.
Lawsuit Points to Prior Riverview Case
The civil complaint alleges the school board failed to act on foreseeable warning signs, pointing to the fact that less than a year before Anderson's arrest, another Riverview High School social studies teacher and head coach, David Patrick Coffey, was arrested and later convicted on eight felony counts involving sexual misconduct with a student, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Attorneys at Leighton Panoff Law argue that history put the district on notice about staff sexual misconduct at the school.
A Hillsborough County Public Schools spokesperson said following Anderson's arrest that she had worked as a biology teacher in the district since November 2021 and had passed all required background checks and screenings before being hired, per iHeart. The district was suspended pending termination after her arrest. The school board declined to comment on the lawsuit when reached by the Daily Mail, according to the New York Post's reporting.
A Pattern Across the District
Hillsborough County Public Schools is the third-largest school district in Florida and the seventh-largest nationwide, overseeing nearly 250 school sites and educating more than 200,000 students. The scale of the district is central to the lawsuit's argument that internal reporting systems, classroom supervision before school hours, and institutional response times failed to catch a second predatory teacher at the same high school in under a year.
The Anderson case is not the district's only recent educator misconduct arrest. Earlier this month, Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies arrested middle school teacher Christian Schneider for allegedly soliciting child sexual abuse material from a former student, a case Hoodline previously reported explicitly tied back to Anderson's arrest at Riverview High School.
Anderson could not be reached for comment, according to the New York Post. She is roughly two months into her prison sentence as the civil case against her and the school board moves forward in Hillsborough County circuit court.
