A mother from North Texas is suing a teacher who was convicted of sexually abusing her daughter, as well as the private school where the teacher was employed and the school’s principal.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Collin County’s 471st District Court. The family is seeking more than $1 million in damages from the convicted former teacher, Jacob Allred, Great Lakes Academy in Plano, and Principal Matthew Jason Campbell.
The lawsuit accuses Great Lakes Academy and its principal of failing to protect its students, failing to prevent and report grooming, and failing to appropriately respond to internal whistleblower complaints about Allred.
After pleading guilty to criminal charges of sexual performance of a child and improper relationship between an educator and a student, Allred, 32, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“Fortunately, Jacob Allred is behind bars, where he belongs, but this lawsuit is about more than just punishing one predator,” said attorney for the victim’s family, Ty Stimpson, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Stimpson called the ordeal a failure on the part of all the defendants.
“We are holding them accountable for the irreparable harm caused by their inaction and indifference,” he said.
Before his arrest, Allred was the victim’s ninth-grade teacher. According to the lawsuit, he began abusing the teenage girl in 2023 after pulling her into the school library and expressing romantic feelings towards her. Allred then began sending the young girl sexual messages.
The suit also alleges that Campbell failed in his role as a mandatory reporter, a person legally obligated to report suspected child abuse, despite being made aware of previous times Allred tried to groom children. Instead of notifying the police or the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Campbell is said to have issued a verbal warning and a written reprimand to Allred.
“The school and the principal had a legal and moral duty to provide a safe learning environment for their students,” Stimpson said in the statement. “Instead, they allowed a predator to operate unchecked and failed to take appropriate action after becoming aware of disturbing misconduct. Their negligence was not just unacceptable — it was extreme and outrageous.”