A jury has ordered Pocola Public Schools and its former superintendent, Jason Brittain, to pay a combined $7.2 million after finding they were negligent in handling a student’s reports that she was being sexually abused at home. Jurors split the award evenly, assigning $3.6 million each to the district and to Brittain personally, and found that Brittain acted in bad faith and therefore outside the scope of his duties as superintendent.
The verdict, reported by 5NEWS, stems from a lawsuit filed in 2023 by Danny Paxton, the student’s father, who alleged his daughter told school officials multiple times that she was being abused and that those reports never reached him or the Pocola Police Department. According to News On 6, the student first reported the abuse to a school staff member during the 2020-21 school year and was sent home afterward, where she was abused again by Eric Taylor.
Two Disclosures, Two Different Responses
Court filings in the case, Paxton v. Independent School District No. 7, lay out a more detailed timeline. The complaint states that while waiting for her bus at the end of the school day on September 15, 2021, the student, identified in court records as A.P., disclosed the abuse to an emergency-certified teacher. School district employees reportedly sent her home that day without notifying her parent, and the complaint alleges Brittain advised a staff member that employees needed only to contact the Oklahoma Department of Human Services hotline rather than police.
The following day, A.P. made a second disclosure, and school personnel reportedly contacted the ODHS hotline but did not contact law enforcement. Local authorities then arrested Eric Taylor. The seed reporting from News On 6 adds that Taylor was later sentenced to prison on charges including rape and procuring juvenile pornography.
Lawsuit Alleged Failure to Protect and Failure to Report
Paxton’s lawsuit, Paxton v. Independent School District No. 7, was filed in federal court and later remanded. The case centered on whether school personnel followed the legal duty to involve law enforcement once abuse was disclosed.
Oklahoma guidance for schools states that police must be contacted whenever a child-abuse report is made, which can include notifying an on-site school resource officer, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Separately, state guidance notes that failing to report suspected child abuse is a misdemeanor, while anyone who reports suspected abuse in good faith is shielded from criminal or civil liability, according to the Oklahoma Child Abuse Hotline page, which also directs suspected abuse or neglect reports to the hotline at 1-800-522-3511.
District Yet to Respond
News On 6 said it had reached out to Pocola Public Schools for comment but had not yet received a response. The jury’s finding that Brittain acted in bad faith and outside the scope of his employment means he, rather than the district alone, bears personal financial responsibility for half of the $7.2 million award.
