Wrestling students' mother suing Fulton schools

FULTON, Mo. - A Fulton mother alleges in a federal lawsuit that school officials did not take proper steps to stop two of her children from being bullied and sexually harassed while they were on the high school's wrestling team.

The lawsuit was filed June 9 in U.S. District Court for Western Missouri.

Twila Barnes accuses the Fulton Public School District of "failure to keep two of its students safe from relentless, pervasive, and multi-faceted sexual harassment and verbal and psychological bullying by students."

Barnes said Wednesday she hasn't decided whether her daughter - who would be a senior at Fulton High School - would continue at the high school in the fall.

Court documents report both her daughter and son were Fulton High students during the 2010-11 school year, but that her son was pulled out of school in April to be home-schooled.

Barnes would not comment further on the case, deferring questions to her attorneys - Kenner Schmitt Nygaard LLC of Kansas City and Kuhlmann LLC of St. Louis. Neither law firm returned repeated calls Wednesday.