St. Peter-Immanuel Lutheran School sued for $20M in 2016 sex case involving student
Josiah Strong didn't get to be a child for very long.
At 14, he showed a lot of promise. He had big, bold dreams of playing football and going to college, then coaching the next generation of athletes.
Strong, instead, says he found himself on a path that he argues in court papers was paved with untreated mental illness and self-medicating with drugs and alcohol.
To hear him tell the story eight years later, it was Elizabeth Dillett who derailed everything for him. And the school she worked for didn't step in and protect him from her.
On Tuesday, Strong filed a lawsuit in federal court in Milwaukee against Dillett and Lutheran Urban Mission Initiative, Inc., the organization that runs St. Peter-Immanuel Lutheran School, where he once studied. He's seeking $20 million in damages.
Dillett was St. Peter-Immanuel's athletic director and an instructor at the school.
She was charged in 2016 with sexual assault of a child by a person who works with children and sexual intercourse with a child age 16 or older. Dillett pleaded guilty later that year to two counts of assault by someone who works with children.
"I lost my childhood," said Strong, 24, his voice cracking and his eyes welling with tears. "I've lost friendships, a lot of relationships that I've tarnished. I'd never wish this experience on anybody. Nobody deserves this."
Court papers allege Dillett had sexual intercourse with Strong 15 to 20 times in 2015 while he was a minor. Some of the encounters occurred in a classroom.
"She groomed him," Milwaukee attorney B'Ivory LaMarr, who filed the lawsuit on Strong's behalf. "The failures by the school administration were egregious. They had a direct result in profound impacts on Mr. Strong's life. He may need therapy for the rest of his life."
Speaking at a news conference outside the school, LaMarr said Strong is eligible to seek damages under Wisconsin Statute 893.587. That provision allows victims to bring a claim until they reach the age of 35.
The lawsuit also alleges Title IX constitutional claims against LUMIN for failing to prevent future occurrences; a concerned parent allegedly reported inappropriate conduct she witnessed between Dillett and the 14-year-old boy, but the school did nothing about it.
Attempts to reach Dillett on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
St. Peter-Immanuel Lutheran School became part of LUMIN Schools in 2020, and began to operate under the oversight and management of LUMIN's board and administration at that point. Before that, the school was a separate, stand-alone entity unaffiliated with LUMIN.
LUMIN issued a statement Tuesday, saying the principal at the time was replaced before the school became affiliated with the LUMIN network.
"As a faith-based, Christ-centered network, LUMIN Schools strives to be a network of schools that are Christian in every sense of the word, caring deeply for the physical, emotional and spiritual growth and safety of each student," LUMIN's statement reads. "We have deep compassion for Josiah and are working with our legal counsel to review the recent filings. We cannot provide additional details on ongoing legal matters at this time."
Dillett, 39, was sentenced in 2016 to two years in prison and three years of extended supervision after her release. Prosecutors dismissed six other counts from an amended complaint, including a more serious felony, second-degree sexual assault of a child as part of the plea arrangement.
She is on Wisconsin's sex offender registry.
Other teachers also were charged with sex-related crimes involving students around the time Dillett's legal troubles unfolded:
In December 2015, April M. Novak, 30, of Sussex, a former Menomonee Falls School District teacher, was charged with 12 counts of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student. A Waukesha County jury convicted her, and she was sentenced to a two-year prison term. She also was ordered to serve three years on supervised release.
Sara M. Domres, a former New Berlin West High School, pleaded guilty in August 2016 to two counts of sexual assault of a student by school staff for incidents that occurred in 2015. She was sentenced to two years in prison.
The National Center for Victims of Crime estimates that one in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse, and that 28% of U.S. youth ages 14 to 17 have been sexually victimized over the course of their lifetime.
Strong said he lost friends and that other treated him differently while he was being abused.
"As a kid, being young, you don't know what it is you're getting yourself into," he recalled.
Strong tried to kill himself – five times.
He said he attempted suicide because he was so despondent and so unable to cope with the abuse and the shame he said came with it.
A sister walked in on him pointing a gun, cocked and loaded, to his temple. She talked him out of pulling the trigger.
Strong said adults saw he was being groomed, but did nothing about it. He said he hoped his coming forward would encourage other boys in similar situations to report it if they are being sexual assaulted.
"In these last eight years, I've been trying to get my voice back," Strong said. "It just really getting to the point of understanding it's OK to speak, and that even when you struggle speaking, that's when you want to speak the most."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former St. Peter-Immanuel School Lutheran student sues in sex case
