A lawsuit previously filed against Jefferson City Public Schools and Jefferson City High School Principal Robert James is being appealed after a federal court dismissed the suit in May.
The appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals' Eighth Circuit was filed July 19 by the attorney representing the family of a student who was raped by a man who posed as a guardian over the phone to remove the then-16-year-old student from school four different times in fall 2016.
The man, Jerome Buschman, now 34 years old, pleaded guilty in August 2017 to second-degree statutory rape and second-degree statutory sodomy and was sentenced to serve five years in prison.
He was released from prison June 7, 2019, and approved to leave the state, but is under parole supervision, according to an official with the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Buschman is also listed through the Missouri Highway Patrol as a sex offender because of the crimes he pleaded guilty to, and his parole release date is listed as June 9, 2022.
The counts of the lawsuit filed last year against JCPS and JCHS' principal essentially argued alleged negligence to prevent or effectively respond to Buschman's acts also constituted sexual harassment of the student.
U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes ruled in May, in the U.S. District Court's Western District of Missouri, there was no evidence to support the sexual harassment argument and ordered the lawsuit be dismissed.
Wimes ruled "there is no dispute that Jerome Buschman was not associated with the district, and that none of the improper sexual contact at issue occurred on school property," and the district's policies did not discriminate between male and female students.
Additionally, Wimes ruled "the record shows that the JCHS staff reasonably believed they were releasing (the victim) from school at the request and authorization of (a parent)," and there is no evidence in the record that supports "the conclusion that JCHS staff did not follow procedure on the four instances in which Jerome Buschman called the school."
Buschman knew the kind of personal information JCHS staff used to identify a caller as authorized to release a student from school, and at least at the time, a caller's phone number was not displayed at the school. Buschman also never went on school property.
The victim knew on each of four occasions in fall 2016 it was Buschman who was calling, but did not inform anyone at school that it was not a parent who was calling.
District policies have stated "'staff may refuse to release a student and will notify the principal if they have concerns regarding the student's safety or whether a person is authorized to transport the student. Otherwise the district will assume the student knows with whom he or she may leave.'"
JCPS Director of Communications Ryan Burns said in June: "Staff at the high school have intensified their focus on the identification process by strengthening the steps required to confirm parent/guardian identity based on information included in student records."
JCPS has five other active lawsuits filed against it, all in Cole County Circuit Court, and four of those suits allege employment discrimination.