THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020439
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 69 lines
A criminal case involving a former Ruffner Middle School music teacher convicted of having sex with two of his students has sparked a civil lawsuit in federal court against the teacher, the School Board and 10 current or former city educators.
The two female students and the mother of one are seeking $21.7 million in damages.
Dung Ba Tran, the former violin teacher, was sentenced in December 1994 for having sex with the girls, who then were minors, and is serving a 15-year sentence at the Haynesville Correctional Center.
The civil lawsuit, filed July 16 in U.S. District Court, alleges that school administrators failed to properly supervise Tran and that some school employees knew Tran was having sex with the girls but failed to intervene.
The suit charges that school officials ``recklessly and with deliberate indifference failed and refused to undertake appropriate action to investigate, censure, reprimand, discipline, report and supervise'' the teacher. The lawsuit said some of the sexual activities occurred at the school, in or near other school facilities, at various residences and in hotels during the school year.
City Attorney Philip R. Trapani said a private law firm has been hired to represent some of the individuals named in the suit - school employees who worked at Ruffner or in the administration during the time the sexual acts occurred. Tran taught at Ruffner from October 1990 to February 1994.
Trapani said the city attorney's office, which handles legal issues for the School Board, will represent the board, former superintendent Gene Carter and former Ruffner principal Mary W. Holley, all named in the suit.
``I do not believe the School Board, the former superintendent or the former principal are liable in any way,'' Trapani said Thursday.
The other defendants are Gary Ruegsegger, Norma Lovick, Greg Barnes, Lurinda Eisenzopf, Richard Rigg, Ann Prince, Sandy Beach and John Young. The attorney hired to represent them, Conrad M. Shumadine of Willcox & Savage, could not be reached Thursday.
Tran is being represented by Janet M. Rinaldi, a court-appointed lawyer from Virginia Beach. She also could not be reached.
The former students have requested a jury trial. A court date has not been set.
Tran was 27 when Norfolk police charged him in March 1994 with eight counts of carnal knowledge after one of the students told police she had a sexual relationship with him from September 1992 to July 1993, beginning when she was 13. The other girl said she was 14 when she and Tran began having sex in his Hampton apartment in 1991; Hampton police also had arrested Tran.
One of the students is a senior in the city schools. The other attends Tidewater Community College.
Virginia Beach attorney Thomas B. Shuttleworth, who is representing the two and the mother, said Thursday that both girls claim other teachers and supervisors ``suspected or knew he was having sex with an underage child and didn't do anything about it.''
Virginia law requires teachers and other adults to report suspected abuse or neglect to proper authorities, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit, charging violation of federal civil rights and state laws, seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages for each of the students. The mother seeks $1 million for expenses to treat her daughter physically and emotionally. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Dung Ba Tran
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOLS SEX CRIME LAWSUIT CHILD
MOLESTATION TEACHER by CNB