ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An Orange County mother filed a lawsuit against the school district Monday claiming her daughter was kidnapped and assaulted by a man back in 2020 while using a school-issued laptop.
In the lawsuit, the mother said the laptop issued to her daughter, who was under the age of 13 at the time, did not have parental controls or software blocking her access to certain websites, despite the district’s cybersecurity policy that prohibits access to social media on computers distributed to elementary and middle school students.
[TRENDING: Orlando-bound flight clipped by another United jetliner at New Jersey airport | Florida firefighter to donate organs in selfless last act after surfing accident, family says | Become a News 6 Insider]
The laptop was issued to the student so she could attend school virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lawsuit claims. The plaintiff also said she had restricted her daughter’s access to other technology outside the laptop, like her phone and social media accounts, because she was previously a victim of online grooming and sexual abuse in July 2020.
According to the lawsuit, 26-year-old Keith Green, Jr. began contacting the student on her school-issued laptop during the school day around September 2020 and “initiated a pattern of grooming the (girl).”
According to documents released by the sheriff’s office in 2020, Green shared his plans to have the girl move in with him by pretending to be his niece and “lay low” until she was 16 or 17 years old when he said criminal charges wouldn’t be as serious.
He attempted for days to get the girl to leave her home and promised to get her a new iPhone if she did, according to the plaintiff.
The girl’s mother did not know about the lack of security measures on her laptop until Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, about 12 hours before Green kidnapped her daughter, the lawsuit claims.
An Amber Alert was issued for the girl when she went missing around 2 p.m. on Sept. 26, 2020, and subsequently canceled when she was found hours later out of Santa Rosa County. Between when she went missing and was found, the girl was sexually assaulted, the lawsuit shows.
Due to the school district’s failure to ensure that the girl’s mother had access to her daughter’s laptop, the plaintiff was unable to unlock the computer for police to aid in their investigation during the time her daughter was missing, according to the lawsuit.
Orange County deputies arrested Green that day. He was charged with kidnapping, interference with custody, luring or enticing a child, lewd or lascivious molestation, lewd or lascivious conduct, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, solicitation of a minor via computer and obscene communication and traveling to meet a minor after using a computer.
After the assault occurred, the plaintiff requested non-electronic education options for her daughter, to which the school district replied that the only option available was to “pick up another laptop,” the lawsuit alleges.
According to the plaintiff, the district also recommended the victim “be placed in alternative educational settings for troubled high schoolers to deny her equal access to education.”
The lawsuit claims the victim is still missing all her sixth-grade class credits and did not reenter a classroom again until spring semester of 2021 when the plaintiff found a private school alternative for her.
The plaintiff is suing the district for monetary compensation as a result of its negligence, hostile and indifferent environment and failure to train employees how to address the situation.
The plaintiff is demanding a trial by jury.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: