A former Helena Public Schools student allegedly raped by a mentor in the now-defunct Wakina Sky after-schoolA program is suing the school district for negligence.A

First filed in Cascade County District Court in August 2015 and later transferred to Lewis and Clark County District Court, the suit accuses the school district of being negligent in its oversight of Wakina Sky Learning Circle, a nonprofit that provided its own after-school learning program for Native American youth. For several years, the school district had acted as a fiscal agent for federal grant money to Wakina Sky.A

The suit states that beginning in 2001, when the plaintiff was 9 years old, he was sexually assaulted by William Augustus Henness, a mentor at Wakina Sky.

It also states that Henness was assigned as the plaintiffas Big Brother in the Helena Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and that the plaintiff was continually assaulted and molested by Henness for a decade.

The plaintiff named Henness, Wakina Sky Learning Circle and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Helena (and affiliates) as defendants in earlier lawsuits dating back to 2013.

In 2011, Henness was charged in Lewis and Clark County District Court with three felony counts of sexual intercourse without consent. 22 of this year.

aWe are still trying to understand why they think the school district has a duty (here),” said the school districtas attorney Dave Dalthorp with the law firm Jackson, Murdo & Grant, P.C.

aIt was an after-school program run by Wakina Sky with their staff and volunteers,a he said.A

aAll of this happened way before I was here,a said school district Superintendent Kent Kultgen, who was hired by the district in 2012.

To Kultgenas knowledge, no Wakina Sky programs ever took place on school property or involved the school district.

The district states in its answer to the complaint that aHenness was not an employee or volunteer of the school district,a and the district had never heard about the abuse until the school district was recently named as a defendant.

The district’s involvement was solely a fiscal arrangement to pass through federal funds, Kultgen said.

However, the plaintiffas attorney, Dan Flaherty, with Flaherty Law Office in Great Falls, said athatas going to be the hotly contested issue.a

The complaint alleges that the school district ahad various oversight and managerial duties over Wakina pertaining to students’ safety and security. Helena Public School District received grant money for its oversight of Wakina Sky.a

The lawsuit also alleges the school district ahad a duty to use reasonable care in the investigation, participation, and oversight of adults who applied to become Wakina mentors and who had substantial and regular interaction with minor children.a

There are a lot of requirements and paperwork that go with federal grants, which will be the focus of his initial discovery efforts,A Flaherty said.

The school district, in its answer to the complaint, denies that it had any duty to oversee Wakina Skyas program and do background checks on its people.

aNow weare going through paperwork and trying to find people who remember things from 15 years ago,a Dalthorp said.

During the discovery stage, which the case is just entering, both parties exchange written information requests and get answers and documents back from the other side, said Dalthorp.

aThen we go and take depositions to try to figure out if there is any validity to the allegations.a So far, no deposition dates have been set.

During the discovery process, aeach side gets to do their own investigation,a Flaherty said. Thereas a lot to work through.a

Suits against the other parties, Wakina Sky and Big Brothers Big Sisters, have been adismissed for agreement within the parties,a Flaherty said.

In recent years, Wakina Sky Learning Circle was aadministratively dissolveda by the Montana Secretary of State’s office after it failed to file its 2013 annual paperwork with the state.