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Harriet Sugg (Orange County Sheriff’s Office) and The First Academy in Orlando (YouTube: WFTV screenshot)
A private Christian school in Florida hid information about one of its teachers allegedly grooming and sexually abusing a student over several years, according to a lawsuit filed last week.
The victim, identified in court documents as “Jane Doe,” alleges the “Christ-centered, college-preparatory school,” The First Academy, run by the First Baptist Church of Orlando, failed to notify law enforcement or take action to protect a juvenile female student from grooming and sexual abuse at the hands of science teacher Harriet Sugg, court documents allege.
Sugg was arrested last month and charged with five counts of sexual activity with a minor in connection to her alleged abuse of the student, court records show. She was booked into the Orange County Jail on Oct. 11 and released after posting $25,000 bond.
“A teacher was actually engaging in sexual intercourse and sexual activity with a child right under their noses at the school,” said Andrea Lewis, one of the attorneys who filed the suit on behalf of the victim, in a statement to Orlando, Florida, Fox affiliate WOFL. “She was grooming this younger girl and eventually did engage in extremely egregious and inappropriate acts of child sexual abuse.”
According to the complaint, filed on Friday, Sugg and the victim met in September 2014 when the teacher and volleyball coach was 45 and the victim was 15. Though Sugg was not the victim’s teacher then, she “quickly ingratiated herself into [the victim’s] life under the guise of faith-based mentorship,” the complaint alleges.
“Harriet Sugg used her position as a teacher at The First Academy to befriend and groom [the victim] and gain her trust. Within weeks of meeting [the victim], Harriet Sugg gave her a gift that said, ‘Will you be my little sister?’” the document states. “By the end of 2014, Harriet Sugg was spending large amounts of time with [the victim] in and out of school, grooming the impressionable [victim] to believe that their inappropriate closeness was normal and a sign of Harriet Sugg’s care for her. Harriet Sugg’s unusually close relationship with [the victim] was known to the school and its administration.”
The grooming allegedly turned into sexual abuse on Jan. 6, 2016, about two months after the victim turned 17. According to an affidavit of probable cause, Sugg took the victim to her apartment, as she had done “many times before,” but the victim said this time was different.
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“She took me home with her like she had many times. She took me into the spare bedroom, and before I had time to understand what was happening, my school uniform was on the floor, and she had me naked in her bed with her,” the victim told police. “She [engaged in sexual acts with the victim] and then watched as I put my school uniform back on and then drove me back to the church so that I could ride home with my dad. I remember how I felt getting in the back seat of my dad’s car. I knew I was in deep, and I didn’t know how to get out of it.”
The complaint and affidavit allege that Sugg regularly engaged in unlawful sexual contact with the victim on school grounds in the weeks and months that followed. The lawsuit claims that administration and staff members caught Sugg engaging in such activity with the victim several times, alleging the relationship was so well-known on campus that even multiple students reported Sugg to administrators.
However, the suit claims that despite this knowledge, the school placed the victim in multiple classes taught by Sugg. At one point, Sugg’s husband even reported that his wife’s “abnormally close” relationship with the victim was inappropriate.
The school officially ended Sugg’s employment on May 6 and, that same month, asked the victim to withdraw as a student, the complaint states. But at “no time” did the academy report its knowledge or suspicions of Sugg to law enforcement.
The school went on to publish a statement on its website regarding the allegations of sexual abuse.
“We are deeply saddened to address the allegations of sexual abuse that occurred approximately seven years ago involving a former female high school teacher and a female high school student at The First Academy. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness and want to assure our community that we are committed to the safety, well-being, and spiritual development of our students.
“Our top priority has been and will continue to be a nurturing and Christ-centered environment where students can grow academically, emotionally, and spiritually. We understand that trust in our institution has been shaken by these allegations, and we want to acknowledge the pain and concern this has caused in our community.”
An attorney representing Sugg in the criminal case did not immediately respond to a message from Law&Crime. There is currently no attorney listed as representing Sugg in the civil case.
