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State ordered
to pay parents
$860,451

Two girls allegedly were
molested by a teacher at
Mokapu Elementary

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

A Circuit Court judge has ordered the state to pay $860,451 in damages to the parents of two former Mokapu Elementary students who accused a teacher of sexually molesting them.

Parents Steven and Cynthia Davis and Mary and Benjamin Draughn sued the Education Department in 1997, alleging it failed to exercise reasonable care to protect their children against fourth-grade teacher Lawrence Norton.

Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna awarded the parents a total of more than $1.7 million and ruled the state will be responsible for 49 percent, or $860,451. Norton himself is responsible for 51 percent of the damages, but the court said it is unable to seek judgment against him because he has since filed for bankruptcy.

The parents contended the department failed to look into his background after allegations of sexual misconduct involving another girl in 1991 and allowed him to resume teaching with no restrictions after he was acquitted by a jury of those allegations.

Norton was later acquited of sexually assaulting the Davis and Draughn families' daughters but was convicted in 1996 of fondling a third girl. He was sentenced to a year in jail and fired.

McKenna, who presided over the nonjury trial in January, yesterday issued a decision that found:

The department failed to adequately and thoroughly investigate allegations of sexual molestations that first arose in 1991.

School administrators failed to adequately supervise Norton when he was reinstated in the classroom and failed to limit his activities.

The school failed to seek the help of a specialist trained in interviewing victims of child abuse and interviewed the girls without their parents' knowledge.

Administrators misrepresented the results of two administrative investigations absolving Norton to Kaneohe Marine Base officials.

Had school administrators conducted a proper investigation and trained its administrators, the Davis and Draughn girls would not have been harmed, the court ruled.

Mark Davis, attorney for the parents and no relation to the Davises, called the decision a primer on how to deal with child abuse or sexual molestation in the schools. "It is an amazing decision because it lays out exactly their special duties and obligation to students to investigate these allegations."

The Davises and Draughns have since moved to the mainland.

Deputy Attorney General George Hom during the trial had argued that school administrators had done a thorough investigation based on the information available at the time.

Norton was hired to teach at Mokapu in 1989 before a law was passed allowing the department to check the criminal backgrounds of prospective employees who come into close contact with children.

Norton allegedly began issuing passes to a select group of current and former female students with light-colored hair, inviting them to his classroom during the lunch hour. Before the lunch period was over, he would hand out candy and give the girls hugs.

It was during these hugs that the Draughn and Davis girls alleged that Norton touched their buttocks or upper torso.