Class-Action Suit Alleges Privacy Violations At Brooke High

Prinicpal Charged After Video Recording Devices Found In Locker Rooms

WELLSBURG -- A class-action lawsuit has been filed in relation to the alleged placement of video recording devices in three girls’ locker room areas at Brooke High School.

Brooke County Schools officials and county law enforcement Thursday announced the arrest of Eric Michael James, 53, the principal at the high school, on felony charges of intentionally intercepting or attempting to intercept wire, oral or electronic communication and breaking and entering a nonresidence. The arrest follows the discovery of four cameras in three girls’ locker rooms -- identified by officials as the physical education locker room, varsity locker room and an area used by the school’s dance team.

Friday afternoon, Fitzsimmons Law Firm PLLC announced it had filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of a Brooke High School student and other female students against James and the Brooke County Board of Education.

"Every child has an absolute right to be safe at school," said Clayton Fitzsimmons, managing member. "There is no exception to that responsibility. When parents send their children to school, they entrust them to the adults responsible for their care and expect them to be protected. And nowhere should a child be more secure in her privacy than in a locker room or changing area. What is alleged to have happened here represents a profound violation of that trust."

The suit -- listed as "Jane Doe and John Doe, Individually and as Parents, Guardians, and Next Friends, Parent, v. Brooke County Board of Education" -- was filed in Brooke County Circuit Court. A jury trial has been requested before Circuit Court Judge Jason Cuomo, according to the filing.

"Plaintiffs bring this action to protect those students and to obtain accountability from James for the alleged surveillance and from the Board for its own alleged failures in the operation, oversight, inspection, and safeguarding of the private student facilities under its control," the complaint notes. "The purpose of this case is straightforward; to protect the children whose privacy was violated, to provide them appropriate relief, and to require reasonable safeguards so that students can use school locker rooms and changing areas without fear of secret surveillance."

The complaint notes it was filed on behalf of the biological parents of "J.D.," identified only as a minor under the age of 18, and "a female student and/or student-athlete enrolled at Brooke High School."

It further notes "J.D." "regularly used one or more of the Female Facilities in the ordinary course of attending physical education class, participating in athletics, and/or participating in extracurricular activities at which times she would be undressed or partially undressed during the period in which James’s hidden recording devices were installed and operational…As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ conduct described herein, J.D. Has been traumatized, has suffered emotional distress, and now lives with the reasonable fear and belief that she was the subject of improper video recordings while undressed or partially undressed in a school facility she expected to be safe and private."

The suit features nine counts against James and the school district, including negligence; negligent hiring, retention, supervision and training; negligent infliction of emotional distress; invasion of privacy; citations of West Virginia code related to the two felony charges against James; intentional infliction of emotional distress/outrage; violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act; and vicarious liability/respondeat superior.

"For a young girl, a locker room or changing area is supposed to be a private and safe space," Christy Pill, an attorney with Fitzsimmons Law Firm, said. "The idea that a child could later have to wonder whether someone was secretly watching or recording her while she was changing is deeply disturbing. No girl should ever have to experience that uncertainty at school. These students deserve to have their privacy, dignity, and safety protected."

As of Friday afternoon, James remained in the West Virginia Northern Regional Jail on a $100,000 cash bond. A preliminary hearing on his felony charges currently is set for Sept. 14.