Sexual assault victim’s mother sues Federal Way school district

The mother of a student who was sexually assaulted by a former Federal Way High School girls basketball coach is suing the school district.

Filed on May 2, the mother of the victim alleges Federal Way Public Schools failed to protect her daughter when Brianna Strong, who was the assistant varsity girls’ basketball coach, engaged in illegal sexual acts with the now-17-year-old girl in late 2013.

Strong pleaded guilty to third-degree child molestation in March 2015 after her June 2014 arrest.

The lawsuit alleges that school district officials “broke its own policies,” including Washington State high school athletic policies, when Strong used her personal vehicle as an “after-practice school bus” to take the victim and other teammates home.

According to court documents, it was during these rides home that Strong groomed and sexually assaulted the teenager.

The victim’s mother said she didn’t notice this was happening because she was battling breast cancer during the 2013 basketball season. When she found out, she was “devastated.”

District spokeswoman Kassie Swenson said Federal Way Public Schools works “to foster an educational environment where appropriate staff-student boundaries are maintained, and we will continue to do so in the future. When a staff member or member of our community breaches this trust, it is an exceptional breach of the district’s expectations.”

The district would not comment specifically on the most recent lawsuit, saying that it would respond to the civil suit’s allegations through its attorneys. However, Swenson noted that Strong is no longer employed by the district, adding that when the “issue was raised to the district, it cooperated fully with law enforcement.”

The lawsuit notes that Federal Way Public Schools has a long history of coaches engaging in sexual misconduct with female athletes.

According to a 2003 Seattle Times article, Paul Jensen, a former girls volleyball coach at Lakota Middle School (formerly known as Lakota Jr. High), is alleged to have inappropriately touched female athletes between 1993-1996. The district fired him as a coach and transferred him to another school to teach, according to the article.

The same article reports that Jerome Collins, a Federal Way High School coach for 32 years, allegedly sexually harassed girls. He was reprimanded in 1994 for “slapping female students on the buttocks,” and a 1999 complaint alleged that he “constantly” asked a female student to kiss him, he wanted to see her naked, he rubbed her stomach and eventually did kiss her. According to the article, the school district’s human resources attorney recommended that he be fired but the school district “considered a lesser discipline.”

Collins has gone on to lead the Federal Way High School boys basketball team to three championships.