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Suit claims abuse by Randolph teacher in 1990s

RANDOLPH — A lawsuit has been filed against the Randolph Central School District and a former teacher by two females who were sexually abused by the same male teacher back in the 1990s.

The lawsuit was filed in state Supreme Court last month under the Childs Victim Act by two plaintiffs. One plaintiff lives in Randolph while the other lives in Great Valley. The two are being represented by John LaMancuso of Lewis & Lewis P.C. of Jamestown.

Named in the suit are the Randolph Central School District and Kim Daniels of Randolph.

According to the suit, Daniels had been employed with the district between 1990 and 1993 as a history teacher. It says that Daniels had engaged in sexual contact and abuse of the two victims inside school district classrooms.

The suit further alleges that during this time, Randolph Central School District, its teachers, employees, agents, officials and/or representatives knew that Daniels was “engaging in inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature with students of Randolph Central School District, at Randolph Central School.”

The suit states that Daniels also invited students to his home and had provided alcohol to them.

The lawsuit alleges Randolph Central School “failed to adequately teach students how to recognize and properly response to sexual abuse at school” and failed to “make students feel comfortable reporting sexual abuse and/or inappropriate sexual behavior at school.”

The school district has not officially been served a copy of the complaint. “The District has been made aware that there was a Child Victims Act claim filed stemming from a situation that may have occurred over 30 years ago,” Superintendent Kaine Kelly told The Post-Journal when notified of the suit. “However, we are unable to comment on any pending litigation at this time.”

Daniels, when reached by phone Monday, declined to comment.

According to a March 29, 1993, article in The Post-Journal, Daniels, who was 52 at the time with a Randolph address, was taken into custody after being accused of filming sex videos with a 15 year old female. In May of that year, he was indicted on three counts of promoting a sexual performance of a child, three counts of use of a child in a sexual performance, 14 counts of unlawfully dealing with a child and eight counts of third-degree sexual abuse.

According to The Post-Journal, neighbors said he had parties in his home with teenagers quite often and there were “always a group of kids up there on weekends.” A Cattaraugus County Sheriff Department investigator said they were looking through 50-75 videotapes confiscated from Daniel’s residence. Some of the videotapes were legitimate X-rated movies, basic home movies and at least one video was with the 15-year-old girl.

On May 1, 1994, Daniels pleaded guilty in Cattaraugus County Court to two counts of promoting sexual performance by a child, a Class D felony. He was sentenced to serve six months in jail, five years probation, and was issued a $10,000 fine. He was also required to resign from the school.

At the time of the sentencing, Richard Chubon, who was the Randolph school superintendent said, “I think the sheriff and the district attorney did a thorough job. I’m glad the matter is behind us and everyone can move forward.”

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