MIAMI – A former student of Miami Palmetto Senior High School has filed a lawsuit against the Miami-Dade County Public School Board, more than a year after her former teacher was arrested on charges of sexual battery on a minor.
According to the complaint, Jason Meyers had molested female students since around November 2004, when he was employed at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School .
The lawsuit claims that Meyers performed and received oral sex from a 17-year-old student at the school and was later seen by school police leaning over the girl in a "very personal and intimate fashion" in the school's hallway.
Meyers is then accused of sexually abusing another girl at the school in or around 2006, and then a third in 2006 or 2007.
The complaint states that the school's principal was notified about the allegations in an email in October 2008, and Meyers was transferred to Palmetto High School.
File: Jane Doe Vs. Miami-Dade County Public School Board
However, Meyers continued targeting students in his creative writing class and club, the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit stated that Meyers would be around several students so much that school officials, administrators and other teachers referred to them as "Jason's girls."
Meyers would be seen walking the girls to their cars and hanging out with them around school, including in his classroom, the complaint stated.
The victim who filed the lawsuit was 16 and 17 years old when she was in Meyers' creative writing class.
The girl claims that Meyers told her that her writing was "good, but boring," and told her to write "edgier" and sexually explicit content for him.
The lawsuit stated that he also instructed her to read sexually explicit material such as "Lolita," "Lawns," and "Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented."
Meyers "emphasized passages about the courtship of a young girl by an older man, the molestation of a young girl by her father and rape," the complaint alleged.
Meyers is also accused of sending the girl notes during class that said "I've been thinking about you," and "I want to kiss you."
According to the complaint, he later forcibly kissed her, "spread her legs apart, positioned his groin between her thighs, pressed his body against hers, forced his hands underneath (her) clothes, and fondled (her) body."
Meyers is also accused of telling the teen to take nude photos of herself for him and pressuring her to have sex with him at school, at his home and at her home when her parents were away.
The complaint alleges that he also molested her at a school-sponsored event, Banyan Bowl, in Pinecrest Gardens.
The lawsuit stated that after Meyers' arrest, four other students were identified as victims of sexual abuse.
According to the complaint, Meyers' wife, who was pregnant when he was arrested, was also a teacher at Palmetto Senior High School and was aware of at least some of the allegations against her husband.
Meyers was arrested at his home in February 2016.
The complaint stated that a detective saw three of Meyers' children running around inside the house naked and touching their own genitals.
Police notified the Florida Department of Children and Families.
A Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokeswoman said Meyers was fired by the school district after his arrest.
The lawsuit demands a jury trial and seeks "compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, attorneys' fees, pre-and-post-judgment interest and such other relief as (the) court deems just and proper."