Supreme Court: School can be sued for hiring teacher later convicted of sex abuse
File photo Seed Academy Harvest Prep School. (FOX 9)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a Minneapolis charter school is not immune from liability after it was accused of negligent hiring. The case centers around a former teacher who was later convicted of sexually abusing his students.
Sex abuse victims can sue school for hiring teacher
The backstory:
The Supreme Court ruled Harvest Best Academy can be sued for hiring Aaron Hjermstad in 2016. Hjermstad was working as a basketball coach and teacher at charter schools operated by Harvest Best Academy when he was charged in 2020 with sexually abusing multiple students.
The school argued it could not be held responsible for failing to obtain information about the teacher’s employment history, including previous allegations of abuse, because it contracted out some steps in the hiring process.
The school also claimed its hiring discretion in this case should be shielded from civil liability under state law.
The Supreme Court disagreed with those arguments and reversed a lower court’s ruling.
Charter school can be sued after teacher sexually abused multiple students
Timeline:
In 2022, Hjermstad was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Last year, he was indicted on another 12 counts of criminal sexual conduct for abusing young boys over an eight-year period.
Hjermstad was first investigated for sexual abuse while working at another charter school in 2015.
A student at Excell Academy reported that Hjermstad sexually assaulted him during a sleepover at the teacher’s home.
The school reported the allegations to police but Hjermstad was not charged at the time.
Dig deeper:
The FOX 9 Investigators found Excell Academy later chose to "not renew" Hjermstad’s contract.
He was quickly hired by Harvest Best Academy to teach at one of its charter schools despite not completing his application or listing any employment references.
During the hiring process, Hjermstad allegedly told administrators he was let go from his previous school because of "budget cuts," according to court records.
A victim then sued the charter school for negligence in 2020, claiming the school failed to take steps that would have uncovered the past allegations of abuse against Hjermstad.
A district court dismissed all claims of negligence against the school after ruling that Hjermstad’s conduct was "unforeseeable."
The appellate court later upheld a separate ruling that found the school was entitled to immunity under a state law that shields municipalities from tort liability when making policy-level decisions.
Under this exception, municipalities are immune from lawsuits challenging how it uses such discretion, "whether or not the discretion is abused."
Best Academy argued hiring Hjermstad was essentially a "policy-level" decision that was immune from lawsuits.
The Supreme Court rejected that argument.
"We are not convinced that every decision to hire or fire a teacher is policy-making," the justices wrote.
What they're saying:
Jeff Anderson, the victim’s attorney, said he appealed the case because he felt it set a dangerous precedent that would shield schools from responsibility no matter what steps were skipped in the hiring process.
Harvest Best Academy previously issued a statement saying the charges against Aaron Hjermstad were "deeply disturbing."
Harvest Best attempted to distance itself from the teacher, claiming he only volunteered as a basketball coach. However, the Supreme Court definitively stated that "Best Academy hired Hjermstad" to work for its network of schools.
"The Academy disagrees with the court’s decision. We are reviewing the decision to determine potential next steps in this ongoing litigation. The Academy is confident that it will prevail against the remaining claims on remand," Best Academy said in a statement.
Why you should care:
Advocates for victims of sexual abuse say the Hjermstad case also exposed a flaw in the state’s mandated reporting requirements.
Since Hjermstad was not actually fired by Exell Academy in 2015, the school was not required to report him to the teaching board. Within months, Hjermstad started working at Best Academy.
The FOX 9 Investigators found last year another school also didn’t report a teacher accused of misconduct after it rescinded his contract instead of firing him in 2023.
What's next:
The case will be remanded to the district court for additional proceedings.