Lawsuit filed against Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy, former teacher in sex abuse case

MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

May 17, 2018

Christina Tkacik
The Baltimore Sun

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against an East Baltimore Catholic school and a teacher who worked there following his arrest in a sex abuse case.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of the student alleges that Ryan Penalver, 27, a history teacher who had worked at St. Frances Academy, used his school email account to prey on the 15-year-old who expressed a desire to harm herself.

“This family [of the victim] is devastated and has asked us to uncover exactly how this happened,” said attorney Hassan Murphy, whose firm, Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, is handling the case.

The lawsuit alleges that prior to his abuse of the victim, listed under the pseudonym “Jill Doe,” Penalver had also engaged in inappropriate communications with other students and that members of the school community were aware of this.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.