Opinion ID: 45772
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: In December 2001, Sarah Doe was a fourteen-year-old special education student1 at Thomas Edison High School. Arthur Aguilar was the Assistant Principal of the school. On Friday, December 7, 2001, a teacher, Ashley Heyen, brought Sarah to Aguilar’s office because Sarah had arrived late to class. Aguilar filled out a permission slip for Sarah to return to class at 8:45 a.m. At 9:15 a.m., Heyen again brought Sarah to Aguilar’s office. Heyen stated that she found Sarah walking in the hallways. At this second meeting, Aguilar spoke with Sarah. The parties dispute whether Sarah correctly identified herself to Aguilar. Doe claims Sarah correctly identified herself by name; Aguilar states that she did not. Both parties agree that Sarah claimed not to know her home address, her student identification number, or her phone number. Sarah did, however, remember the phone number of a man she told Aguilar was her uncle. Sarah told Aguilar that her father was always drunk and that her mother was never at home. At the time, Aguilar thought that Sarah was being 1 The record establishes that Sarah suffers from an emotional disturbance and attention span problems but there is no indication that she is learning disabled. -2- “coy.” Aguilar decided to suspend Sarah for truancy and insubordination but was not able to find her in his electronic database of students. So, Aguilar allowed Sarah to call her “uncle” to arrange for him to pick her up from school. Aguilar advised Sarah that he needed to meet with her uncle when he arrived to pick her up. At that time, the school had a nondiscretionary release policy that provided that a student may only be released to a parent or legal guardian, a police authority, or a person who a parent had designated by written request. Aguilar told Sarah to wait in his office until her uncle arrived. At about 9:45 a.m., Aguilar left his office to attend to other duties. He left Sarah alone in the lobby of the main office and did not assign any support personnel to supervise her. Aguilar then forgot about Sarah. Sarah left school at some later point with her “uncle.” At around 5:00 p.m., Sarah’s grandmother and guardian contacted the school after Sarah failed to arrive home. Sarah was then discovered by San Antonio police at the home of the man who had picked her up at school. Sarah alleges that he sexually abused her.