KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Attorneys at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight today filed a lawsuit in Missouri state court against Pembroke Hill School (“Pembroke”), a private preparatory school in Kansas City, and former Pembroke teacher Michael Jones, on behalf of Jane Doe, a child victim who alleges she was sexually abused during her fourth-grade year at Pembroke by her then-teacher, Jones.
Jane Doe is represented in the matter by attorneys at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight – Christine Dunn, Managing Partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office and Co-Chair of the firm’s Sexual Violence, Title IX, and Victims’ Rights Practice Group, and Jillian Seymour, Associate. Doe is also represented by local counsel Jarrett Johnson, an attorney at Kansas City firm McGonagle Johnson.
The lawsuit filed today alleges that Jones groomed and sexually abused then-fourth-grader Doe for nearly the entire 2021-2022 academic year at Pembroke when she was a student in his class. As the complaint asserts, Jones relied on Pembroke’s lax supervision of students to routinely isolate Doe by removing her from school activities and spending time with her, alone, in unsupervised areas of Pembroke’s campus, including his classroom. During these one-on-one encounters, Jones spoke to Doe about explicit topics, such as his sexual desires and his marital problems. His sexual misconduct escalated over the course of the academic year, culminating with repeated sexual abuse of Doe in his classroom. As a result of the sexual abuse, Doe’s mental health declined significantly over the course of her fourth-grade year at Pembroke and continued to worsen in the years thereafter. The complaint further states that Doe revealed Jones’s abuse to her parents in the fall of 2024. Doe’s parents promptly reported Doe’s allegations against Jones to Pembroke leadership. Despite its knowledge of these allegations, Pembroke allowed Jones continued unrestricted access to Pembroke’s students over approximately the next two months. Jones ultimately resigned from Pembroke in January 2025.
The complaint additionally states that, shortly after learning of Jones’s abuse of their daughter, Doe’s parents learned of other sexual misconduct allegations against Jones arising both before and after he abused Doe. As alleged in the complaint, at the time of Jones’s hiring at Pembroke, multiple Pembroke leaders had explicit notice of allegations against Jones arising from inappropriate conduct with third-grade girls at his most recent school of employment. Those allegations bore striking similarity to Doe’s allegations. Specifically, the complaint alleges that a parent from Jones’s prior school of employment notified Pembroke leadership on at least two occasions that Jones faced allegations of sexual misconduct with multiple elementary-aged female students, prompting Jones’s resignation from the prior school. The complaint further alleges that, despite that notice, Pembroke proceeded with Jones’s employment. Additionally, the complaint alleges that in the years following Jones’s sexual abuse of Doe, Pembroke leadership received multiple reports of Jones’s sexual misconduct and sexual harassment involving other students and teachers. Despite these additional reports, Pembroke continued to allow Jones unfettered access to the population he was accused of harming.
The complaint filed today raises counts of negligence, negligent hiring/retention, negligent supervision, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and battery for the sexual abuse that Jones inflicted on Doe throughout the 2021-2022 academic year. Pembroke is currently facing an additional lawsuit involving Jones that was filed by his former Pembroke faculty assistant, who alleges that Jones subjected her to sexual harassment for a period of nearly two years.
“What happened to my client was entirely preventable. Pembroke was on notice that this teacher was a danger to children, yet they allowed him unfettered access to children,” said Christine Dunn. “As a result of Pembroke’s negligent failure to keep its students safe, a young girl endured extreme trauma and emotional distress that continues to this day – even years after the abuse.”