A woman who was sexually assaulted as a teenager by a Trinity Academy teacher is suing the private K-12 Christian school and a current and former official for negligence, alleging their failures to hire, retain and supervise the teacher caused or contributed to to its abuse.

The woman, in court documents, says she suffered $250 million in damages, including medical expenses and mental anguish, after Matthew McFarren “used his position of trust and authority as a high school teacher … to isolate, groom and sexually abuse”. her when she was a 16-year-old student in 2020 and 2021.

The school owed students “a duty of reasonable care” in vetting and supervising employees, but failed to ensure she was safe from McFarren’s “inappropriate contact,” the lawsuit, filed last month in Sedgwick County District Court, says.

The failures directly caused or contributed to her suffering damages as a result of the sexual abuse, the lawsuit alleges. The school has denied the allegations in court filings.

The suit also alleges that before hiring him, Trinity Academy and its officials “knew or had reason to know that McFarren engaged in acts of misconduct consistent with a dangerous tendency to have unwanted or abusive contact with children minors and students”. An attorney representing the woman, Reed Martens of the law firm Monsees & Mayer in Kansas City, Missouri, declined to say what those alleged acts might be.

McFarren was 41 and worked as a religion teacher and assistant football coach at Trinity Academy, 12345 E. 21st St. in Wichita when he was involved with the girl. He was prosecuted and he was forced to serve more than two years in prison over interactions. He had no conviction before that.

Defendants named in the lawsuit include the school, founding board member and former board president Pete Ochs and former high school principal Jamie Hutchinson, whose last name is now Alford. An attorney representing them did not return messages seeking comment, but denied the allegations and asked for the case to be dismissed in a Nov. 1 response to the lawsuit, saying any sexual assault by McFarren happened “outside the course and scope of of his activity”.

The school fired McFarren for an unspecified “violation of employee expectations and school policy” before his arrest in 2021.

The woman is seeking more than $75,000 in damages and a jury trial. She filed the case anonymously due to privacy concerns and fears that publishing her name would cause further emotional and psychological harm. She is an adult and lives in Riley County now, but her family still lives in the Wichita area, the lawsuit says.

The Eagle does not name victims of sexual assault in stories without their permission.

Court records related to his criminal record say McFarren’s involvement with the girl began after she attended one of his religion classes in 2020. He kept in touch with her, met her in public places, bought him an infinity ringengaged in sexual acts with her and talked about marriage and showering together, his arrest affidavit says.

He even told her he kept his job at the school to be by her side, the affidavit said.

The months-long pursuit ended in early 2021 when others also discovered reported the illicit relationship.

McFarren pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful intercourse and was sentenced to 34 months in prison in 2022. He was released from prison in September and lives in Derby, State Department of Corrections and offender registration files show.

In Kansas, it is against the law for a K-12 teacher to have sex with a student enrolled at their school, even if the student would otherwise be of legal age to consent.

The woman’s lawsuit says she was “in an extremely vulnerable state” when the school placed McFarren in a position of trust and authority over her and then “failed to properly supervise him.”

“The injuries which the plaintiff suffered as a result . . . are the kind which the statutes were designed to prevent.”

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