A suburban Kansas City, Kansas, school district secretly agreed earlier this year to pay $295,000 to the family of an Olathe elementary student who was stalked by a now-jailed former teacher.
Olathe Public Schools finalized the settlement back in May to avoid a lawsuit by the family, but kept the settlement a secret until the Kansas City Star filed an open records request that revealed it.
Although the file agreement was heavily redacted, the newspaper said the settlement was made in the case of former Olathe teacher James Loganbill, who was sentenced earlier this month to a year in county jail for reckless stalking and ordered to register as a sex offender for the next 15 years.
Longabill was a teacher at Meadow Lane Elementary School when he took more than 240 pictures of a 10-year-old girl’s legs and buttocks, police said. The girl was a fourth-grade student at the school, and investigators said Longabill took the photos for his sexual gratification. Police also found evidence that Loganbill was tracking the girl’s whereabouts and watching her competitive dance routines on YouTube.
Loganbill resigned in March 2020 and later filed for retirement after three decades working at three different schools in Olathe.
Because of this case, the Kansas Legislature changed the crime of reckless stalking to a felony, which carries more prison time.
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