NEW ORLEANS - The mother of a special-needs child molested by her bus driver can't sue a Texas school district, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The Feb. 20 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirms a lower court ruling in the case of Crystal Ayon, who sued Austin Independent School District and its police chief, plus Cesar Maldonado.
Maldonado is serving a 20-year prison sentence for his actions, which included at least 10 attacks over three months in 2019. Ayon sued in 2021 but has experienced difficulty pinning the blame on Austin ISD.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas found Ayon failed to show Austin ISD acted with deliberate indifference. The Fifth Circuit agreed in an opinion authored by Judge Edith Jones.
Austin ISD police chief Ashley Gonzalez in a deposition noted sexual predators are a risk and, when asked if relying on special-needs students to report such abuse is effective, said no.
"But this exchange does not suggest that the risk of constitutional violations on AISD buses was 'obvious,'" Jones wrote.
"The admission that sexual predators are 'a risk' to students says nothing of the obviousness of that risk. And the admission that relying on a special-needs child to make a report is an ineffective way to prevent abuse is insignificant because AISD did more to prevent abuse by installing cameras on its buses."
The ruling was at least the second in a month that rejected lawsuits over sexual abuse on school buses. On Jan. 24, Houston federal judge Keith Ellison ruled for Aldine Independent School District in a similar case, which has been appealed.
In that case, the student's mother saw the rape of her 11-year-old child when reviewing bus footage in an attempt to locate her son's missing backpack. Ellison found Aldine ISD's practice of not reviewing bus camera footage did not show deliberate indifference.
The same happened in Ayon's case. Austin ISD did not review camera footage until after a report was filed. Ayon argued that failure to inspect the footage would obviously cause constitutional violations to Austin ISD students.
"But Ayon produced no evidence in the district court to prove that (1) AISD knew sexual predators were driving school buses; (2) AISD bus drivers knew cameras were not monitored; or (3) AISD should have known students on a special-education bus suffer a unique risk of constitutional violation without a bus monitor on board at all ties," Jones wrote.
Ayon's daughter suffers from a speech impediment and was five years old when she attended Uphaus Early Childhood Center in 2018. In that May, she told Ayon that Maldonado had touched her on several occasions.
An investigation confirmed her story. A bus monitor testified she had never seen the attacks, as policy allows monitors to get off the bus for water or restroom breaks as long as there is still one adult on the bus.
Maldonado said he attacked the child when the bus monitor was absent. He faces a $5 million default judgment in the case, though it seems unlikely he would be able to satisfy it.