Failures at private school in Wichita paved way for teen’s sex abuse, lawsuit claims
A woman who was sexually assaulted as a teenager by a Trinity Academy teacher has sued the private K-12 Christian school and a current and former official for negligence, claiming their failures in hiring, retaining and supervising the teacher caused or contributed to her abuse.
The woman, in court documents, says she suffered $250 million in damages, including medical expenses and mental anguish, after Matthew McFarren “used his position of trust and authority as a high school teacher ... to isolate, groom, and sexually abuse” her when she was a 16-year-old student in 2020 and 2021.
The school owed students “a duty of reasonable care” in vetting and supervising employees but failed to ensure she was safe from McFarren’s “inappropriate contact,” says the lawsuit, filed last month in Sedgwick County District Court.
The failures directly caused or contributed to her suffering damages arising from the sexual abuse, the suit alleges. The school denied the allegations in court filings.
The suit also claims that prior to hiring him, Trinity Academy and its officials “knew, or had reason to know, McFarren had engaged in acts of misconduct consistent with a dangerous propensity for unwanted or abusive contact with minor children and students.” A lawyer representing the woman, Reed Martens of Kansas City, Missouri-based Monsees & Mayer law firm, declined to say what those alleged acts might be.
McFarren was 41 years old and working as a religion teacher and assistant soccer coach at Trinity Academy, 12345 E. 21st St. in Wichita, when he was involved with the girl. He was prosecuted and ordered to serve more than two years in prison over the interactions. He had no convictions before that.
The defendants named in the lawsuit include the school, founding board member and former board president Pete Ochs, and former high school principal Jamie Hutchinson, whose last name is now Alford. An attorney representing them did not return messages seeking comment but denied the allegations and asked for the case to be dismissed in a Nov. 1 answer to the lawsuit, saying any sexual assault McFarren committed happened “outside the course and scope of his employment.”
The school fired McFarren for an unspecified “violation of employee expectations and school policy” before his arrest in 2021.
The woman is asking for damages in excess of $75,000 and a jury trial. She filed the case anonymously over privacy concerns and fear that making her name public would cause additional emotional and psychological harm. She is an adult and lives in Riley County now but her family still lives in the Wichita area, the lawsuit says.
The Eagle does not name victims of sexual assault in stories without their permission.
Court records tied to his criminal case say McFarren’s involvement with the girl started after she took one of his religion classes in 2020. He kept in contact with her, met her in public places, bought her an infinity ring, engaged in sex acts with her and talked about getting married and showering together, his arrest affidavit says.
He even told her he kept his job at the school to be near her, the affidavit says.
The months-long pursuit ended in early 2021 when others discovered and reported the illegal relationship.
McFarren pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual relations and was sentenced to 34 months in prison in 2022. He was released from prison in September and is living in Derby, state department of corrections and offender registration records show.
In Kansas, it’s against the law for a K-12 teacher to have sex with a student enrolled at their school, even if the student would otherwise be old enough to legally consent.
The woman’s lawsuit says she was “in an extremely vulnerable state” when the school put McFarren in a position of trust and authority over her and then “failed to properly supervise” him.
“The injuries that Plaintiff suffered as a result ... are the kind the statutes were designed to prevent.”
