West M Sued For Sexual Harassment

The West Muskingum School District is being sued by the parents of a former West Muskingum high school student and the student for sexual harassment by a former teacher. In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus last month it claims the school knew a former teacher, Andrew Hoffer, was sexually harassing students. The suit, for confidentiality purposes did not name the plaintiffs. But it did name the West Muskingum County Board of Education, the West Muskingum Local School District, and Superintendent Sharon Smith, Principal Ray Peyton and Hoffer. Hoffer, who taught at West Muskingum for two years, was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year in September in Muskingum County Common Pleas Court on two count of sexual battery in connection with a then 17-year-old student. The lawsuit is asking for compensatory damages in excess of 25-thousand dollars. Superintendent Smith declined comment, and referred questions about the suit the district’s attorney in Columbus.