'They looked the other way'; Child sex abuse victim wins suit against Cheney School District

CHENEY, Wash. -- A case of a teacher abusing a student in the 1980s cost the Cheney School District millions of dollars , but it cost that student decades of anguish.

Sara Bachman-Rhodes was a middle schooler when she first met charismatic band director Michael Alstad at a band camp. Cheney High School later hired him as its band director when Sara was in high school.

"He started to make me feel special and single me out and, as a kid, you know, that feels really nice to feel like there's something about me that's good and I want do to good things in this program, and so, that became kind of the in-road for him," said Sara.

At the time, she was dealing with a lot at home. She lost two grandparents, and her mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She said, "I needed someone, and he saw that vulnerability and took advantage of it as most predators do."

Sara says teachers and staff members knew Alstad began inappropriately touching and abusing her, a teenaged student, and that it went on for two years. Sara wished someone would have spoken up.

She lived in fear and shame. Michael Alstad left Cheney for a band director job at an Aberdeen, Washington high school, where he was later accused in civil suits of abusing at least two girls. In one of the suits, he admitted the abuse.  That student won a $2 million settlement from the Aberdeen School District.

It wasn't until Sara learned about that case that she began dealing with her own trauma saying, "It was like my whole world opened to the fact that I had been raped, abused for years and I was in shock for literally like 7 months, trying to get my mind around it and I realized at that point that I had to do something."

Because of the statute of limitations for Sara's case passed, Alstad could not be criminally charged in her case, but she could and did file a civil case against the Cheney School District. The court awarded her $3 million.

The school district's attorney Michael McFarland of Evans, Craven & Lackie, P.S. released the following statement:

In June 2020, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that pursuant to the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) , school districts in Washington state are strictly liable for any sexual misconduct of teachers directed at students. This means that when a school district employee sexually abuses a student, the school district is liable, regardless of whether the school district was negligent or otherwise at fault.

Unfortunately, SBR was sexually abused by former Cheney School District teacher Michael Alstad between 1984 and 1986. Prior to SBR filing suit in 2021, Cheney School District had no knowledge of the sexual abuse. Mr. Alstad has not been employed with Cheney School District since 1986 and he is believed to currently be living in Canada.

Given the Supreme Court’s June 2020 ruling regarding strict liability, Cheney School District admitted liability for the sexual abuse of SBR by Mr. Alstad. The trial was therefore only about damages. Cheney School District’s defense in the case was paid for by the insurer in place at the time of the events in question. The judgment will also be paid by the insurer. As such , the judgment will have no direct financial impact on Cheney School District.

The health, safety and welfare of every student is of the utmost concern to Cheney School District, and Cheney School District is deeply troubled by what SBR experienced at the hands of Mr. Alstad in the mid-1980s. Cheney School District remains committed to protecting its students from all types of harm.

Cheney School District hopes that SBR finds healing in the verdict.

The harm for Sara has been done. She lives with it every day. She also lives with the painful feeling that no one was watching out for her and fears the same is happening to many other children still today.

"I was their kid, like I was the district's kid, and they looked the other way. They had an opportunity to do something, and they didn't, and then years down the road when they had an opportunity, they haven't extended a, you know, 'We should have known, we should have done something. You were from our town, and we didn't do our job.'"

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