A lawsuit filed against St. Thomas More University Parish and Student Center concerns allegations involving two minors.
Michael and Stacy Meade filed the lawsuit against St. Thomas More and Paul S. Coakley, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, seeking damages of at least $250,000, according to OU Daily. The petition concerns allegations involving two minors. No trial date has been set.
What the Petition Alleges Happened That Night
According to the petition, A.M. left the group to use a restroom unaccompanied, where she was accosted and sexually assaulted by another minor in the program. The same minor allegedly assaulted her a second time in a different restroom later that evening. A.M. disclosed both incidents to Jordan Ross, the parish's director of youth ministry at the time, that same night.
The lawsuit claims Ross did not report the incident to law enforcement and instead waited until the end of the event to notify A.M.'s parents. The petition further alleges that Ross and A.M.'s parents minimized her disclosure, and claims A.M.'s parents were characterized elsewhere as describing her as boy crazy and suggesting the report was fabricated or exaggerated — a characterization the petition pushes back against as part of its broader account of how the disclosure was handled.
Family Sought Medical Exam and Police Report the Next Morning
The Meades obtained a sexual assault nurse examiner, or SANE, exam for A.M. the following morning and reported the incident to law enforcement at the same time, the petition states. Such exams are used to address medical concerns, assess and document injuries, and collect forensic evidence, per the same filing described by OU Daily.
The petition states A.M. continues to suffer severe physical, psychological and emotional injury, including trauma, fear and humiliation, and that she has been in ongoing counseling and psychological therapy since shortly after the incident — treatment the filing says she continues to require.
Negligence Claims Against the Parish
The plaintiffs accuse St. Thomas More of failing to adequately screen, train or supervise staff and volunteers in recognizing and handling disclosures of sexual abuse. They also claim the parish failed to provide adequate adult supervision of children during the event itself, framing the lawsuit around negligent supervision and a failure to adequately train staff on how to respond when a child discloses abuse.
OU Daily reported that it contacted St. Thomas More and the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City for comment, and that neither had responded by the time of publication.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Institutional Liability Claims
The Oklahoma case arrives the same week that two separate lawsuits in Florida accused a Volusia County church and a Christian school of failing to protect young boys from a former youth pastor and teacher, according to the Orlando Sentinel. In that case, plaintiffs Richard Tripp and Camron Armstrong are seeking at least $25 million and $15 million, respectively, from Edgewater Alliance Church and Warner Christian Academy. The former youth pastor named in those suits, Matthew Clark Graziotti, was sentenced in 2015 to 210 years in federal prison after sexually abusing 29 children under age 12, and the plaintiffs' attorney said Edgewater police had investigated him in 2004, years before he was hired. An attorney for the church told the paper it takes abuse allegations seriously and has cooperated with law enforcement but could not comment further due to ongoing litigation.
Courts in other states have previously allowed similar negligent-supervision claims against religious institutions to proceed. Per legal analysis from Church Law & Tax, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found a church negligent and reckless for allowing a pastor with known misconduct unsupervised contact with children. Those rulings do not determine the outcome of the Oklahoma lawsuit, which remains a set of unproven allegations in a civil petition.
No trial date has been set for the St. Thomas More case at this time.
