(Sibley)– Four Iowa school districts have agreed to pay the victim of sexual abuse by a teacher $650,000 in a legal settlement.
According to attorneys for the victim, in October of 2015, Kyle Ewinger sexually assaulted a then 10-year-old student while employed by the Sibley Ocheyedan Community School District. The sexual assault took place, in part, at the school itself.
Before working at Sibley Ocheyedan, Ewinger taught at Sioux City, Akron Westfield, and Mediapolis School Districts. All four school districts were defendants in the civil lawsuit, and all four were included in the settlement. Each individual school board approved the settlement.
In 2004, while working for the Mediapolis School District in southeast Iowa, Ewinger was alleged to have had inappropriate contact with a student. The district allowed him to resign and agreed not to report the situation to the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners and also provided him with “a neutral letter of recommendation to future employers.”
Ewinger then began working for the Akron Westfield Community School District, which discovered the information after hiring him. They did not report it to future employers.
Another allegation of inappropriate student contact was made at Ewinger’s next job, working for the Sioux City Community School District. Attorneys say the district didn’t investigate the incident properly and did not inform Ewinger’s next employer, the Sibley Ocheyedan Community School District of the allegations.
Ewinger pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the young student in Osceola County District Court and is currently incarcerated.
He was sentenced to up to ten years in prison. That sentence will be served after he completes a prison term of between 55 and 85 years for sexually abusing a boy under the age of 12 in Douglas County, Nebraska. Ewinger must serve at least 35 years of that sentence before he’s eligible for parole.
(Courtesy news partner KTIV in Sioux City)
