Robert Vandel.
The family of a seventh-grader who was raped by her teacher filed a massive federal lawsuit against the charter school in Georgia for hiring an allegedly known predator and turning a blind eye to his egregious sexual misconduct.
63-year-old Robert Allen Vandel is a former science teacher at Fulton Academy of Science and Technology (FAST), a charter school in Roswell, Georgia. Vandel pleaded guilty to raping a student and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in May 2022.
Now, the family of Vandel’s victim identified as “Jane Doe II” says that due to FAST’s “indifference” and “reckless breakdowns of supervision,” Vandel “was able to isolate Jane Doe II, then a 13-year-old 7th grade student at FAST, groom her, sexually harass her, sexually assault her, and rape her.”
The family named as defendants 11 school officials, Fulton County Schools Superintendent Mike Looney, former superintendents Cindy Loe and Jeff Rose, FAST and the Fulton County School District.
The lawsuit tells a disturbing story of FAST’s indifference toward Vandel’s behavior. It alleges that sex crimes against children were “a systemic problem” within the school district as various principals hired and failed to fire Vandel despite their knowledge that he had a history of sexually harassing both students and staff.
According to the complaint, FAST knew that Vandel had been arrested and charged with four counts of sexual battery in 2006. At the time, his teaching license was suspended for two years.
Hi license was suspended again in 2019 for “showing up at school after drinking and smelling heavily of alcohol.” Despite this obviously problematic history, plaintiffs say, FAST opted to hire Vandel anyway.
Once Vandel began teaching at FAST, according to the lawsuit, at least seven students and fourteen teachers filed new reports of sexual misconduct against him. Multiple students apparently told FAST that Vandel touched their shoulders, thighs, and buttocks, and sometimes hit them with a ruler.
The lawsuit says Vandel regularly made sexually suggestive comments to female students and called them pet names such as “flirt,” “care bear,” and “perv,” and once made sexual comments to a student while describing two gummy bears stuck together in a head-to-toe position.
Plaintiffs say Vandel was also known to give girls personal gifts and candy, sometimes inviting the students to his home to pick up the items.
Per the complaint, one teacher emailed her supervisors in 2019 to warn them that Vandel was “creating situations to be alone with girls,” but she was scolded by FAST administration for “being dramatic” and for “not understand[ing] the challenges of being a start-up Charter School.”
Jane Doe II’s family alleges that FAST took various steps to protect its own reputation at the expense of its students’ safety, such as deleting emails that raised complaints about Vandel. This failure to protect students, the family says, culminated in Vandel forcibly raping their daughter in a classroom in 2020. As a result of the attack, their daughter experienced massive trauma, engaged in self-harming behavior, and attempted suicide.
The family raised multiple claims, including negligence for faulty hiring and supervision and violation of civil rights, equal protection, and Title IX for deliberate indifference to sexual harassment. They are seeking an unspecified amount of damages.
Law&Crime reached out to the Fulton County School District for comment. A representative explained that as a charter school, FAST is a separate legal entity from the district itself.
“FAST creates and implements its own personnel policies and hires, vets, and manages its staff independently,” the district representative said. “Fulton County Schools does not comment on pending litigation.”
FAST did not respond to request for comment.
Read the full complaint here.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
