The rules of the Supreme Court of Minnesota The Charter School can be held responsible for renting the sexual abuser

A minneapolis charter school who did not carry out the due diligence in hiring a teacher who was dismissed from a previous school from sexual abuse reports can now be responsible for the employment decision, the Supreme Court of Minnesota decided.

A former student of the Academy of Harvesting and Survivor of Sexual abuses sued the school for hiring his abuser, teacher of physical education and basketball coach Aaron Hjermstad, who is now the execution of a 12 -year prison sentence for more condemnations to sexual abuse.

The lower courts decided that Harvest Best Academy was protected from responsibility, because the decision to hire an employee was a “policy decision”.

The High Court reversed those previous decisions on Wednesday, opening the door for other schools to be sent to court for hiring the personnel who sexually abuse students.

Lawyer Jeff Anderson, whose law firm represented the applicant in this case, celebrated the decision and proclaimed: “In Minnesota, the children are safer today.”

“And this is not about this school, the best academy and their choices to protect this offender,” Anderson said at a press conference on Wednesday morning. “This is now applied in all public schools in Minnesota. So, the administrators, directors and school districts are careful: there is a danger and danger that you have ignored. “

In a statement, Harvest Best Academy said, “We do not agree with the court’s decision” and added that she is “sad and hearted for Aaron Hjermstad’s victims.”

“Harvest Best Academy is focused on providing the highest quality learning experience for all our students and takes the process of employing staff and employees very seriously. We have hired ourselves to make sure that our learning environment remains safe, supportive and conducive to the success of all the students and members of our staff, ”the school said.

Hiring hjermstad

The Master School hired Hjermstad as a physical education teacher in 2016. He was also chosen to train a common student basketball team and another Chartry school under the same network, Harvest Best Academy.

The mastery school merged with Harvest Best Academy in 2021 and no longer exists.

Before his job was hired, Hjermstad was allowed to leave another Charter-Academy of Excellence in Brooklyn Park-after a 12-year-old student reported that Hjermstad had sexually abused. case did not lead to criminal prosecutionBut the school decided not to renew Hjermstad’s contract.

Hjermstad was also a voluntary basketball coach with hospitality and it is known that the players had slept at his house.

During the mastery hiring process, Hjermstad did not answer questions on request, asking why he left his job and if the school could contact his previous employer. Hjermstad was asked to provide three letters of recommendation, but only gave contact information for references, none of them were supervisors. However, these references have never been contacted, the judgments.

“Instead of checking with his former employer, the Academy of Excellence – where reports were made and ignored about his abuse, where he was rebuked … for sexual violations and border violations – they hired him,” said Anderson.

Also, the lawyers raised concerns about the lack of policies of the best harvesting academy to protect students from the care or sexually improper behavior. The school was supposed to know that Hjermstad made the students sleep at home, but had no policy against practice.

Criminal cases

Hjermstad was convicted in Four separate cases of sexual abuse in 2021.

All the victims were under 13 years old at the time of the crime and included the Excellence student who reported that he was abused in 2015, a best harvest student who was abused in 2017 or 2018 and a student who presented in 2020.

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for crimes, but before this conviction took place, he was stopped in Idaho for a traffic violation. During that stop, thousands of videos were discovered from Hjermstad who sexually assaulted minors.

Last year, a great jury of Hennepin County returned a 12 accounts over the attacks of the minors from 2013-21. This case is still pending.

Hjermstad is not the only employee of the Harvest Academy, accused of sexual abuse.

Former Minnesota Professor of the year Abdul Wright was accused of criminal sexual conduct of 1st degree Last year, in connection with the alleged attacks on a female student from 2016-17, including some incidents that took place on school property.