Former West Charlotte Student Awarded $10.5 million In Suit

CHARLOTTE, NC —A federal jury on Friday awarded $10.5 million to a former West Charlotte High School student who was sexually assaulted by the school's ex-band director several years ago, multiple news outlets reported.

The band director, previously convicted of the crimes, was ordered to pay $3 million, while Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) was ordered to pay $7.5 million for allowing the educator to continue to teach after a previous reprimand relating to inappropriate text messages.

City Metro reported that lawyers for CMS have indicated they will appeal the decision.

According to the Charlotte Observer, in 2016, Duncan Gray, pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a student (the victim), which is a felony. The former band director resigned and was sentenced to 30 months probation with "sex offender special provisions."

A police report said Gray's sexual misconduct with the male student occurred between 2010 and 2014, and that the victim was 13 years old when one of the reported crimes occurred.

Recently, the victim, now in his 20s, filed a federal civil lawsuit against the former teacher and the school district. The case played out over four days in a courtroom last week, before the jury rendered its verdict late Friday.

According to City Metro, the student, whose name is being withheld, told the court last Thursday that the assaults left him with feelings of anxiety, depression, anger and thoughts of suicide.

Gray, on Friday, apologized to the student from the witness stand, according to City Metro.

"I'm sorry, I regret it to no end," Gray said. "I would never want any of my students to have to go through what he may very well be going through. To (the victim) and his family ... in the sense of not only praying for myself. I pray for him and his family."

The school district also was named as a defendant in the case because it had failed to fire Gray, and in fact promoted him, even after he had been suspended and reprimanded by CMS for sending suggestive text messages to another students a year before the assault.

According to testimony from a former CMS human resources officer, Gray was approved by the district for career status, which meant he no longer had to work under a year-to-year contract, two years after his suspension. The former human resources employee said the previous "case was closed" by the time the district's decision was made.

Lawyers for CMS, meanwhile, did not dispute the attacks, but sought to deny the district's culpability in the incidents in order to avoid a financial penalty.

"You cannot prevent every accident, unfortunate incident or even bad actors," lawyer Dean Shatley II, reportedly said in his opening arguments of the civil trial on May 3.