15 Shocking Sex Abuse Claims Against School District

Teachers, school staff and administrators accused of knowing that a Wisconsin high school

was a hunting ground for sexual predators and doing nothing about it.

That is the accusation from three women who all went to a Conto Falls High and realized

that they experienced some of the same alleged abuse and even the same alleged abusers.

It's been an ongoing cause of just hurt and pain and so.

Now, they have filed a lawsuit to hold this school district accountable and we're going

to break it down right now.

Welcome to Sidebar presented by law and crime, I'm Jesse Weber.

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With three plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against the Board of Education of a Conto Falls

Public School District in Wisconsin that are right now waiting.

They are waiting a reply from the defendant after they filed a 60 page lawsuit last week.

And their suit is seemingly backed up by arrests and a conviction of school staff in connection

with the parent grooming and assault of teenagers in their care.

It can get a little tricky depending upon the jurisdiction in terms of what prior convictions

can be used as evidence in a civil case or subsequent civil filings.

But just generally this is what we're talking about.

So this lawsuit claims that when the school district learned about allegations against teachers

or staff, they didn't follow their own procedures.

Instead, the accusation is that they allegedly covered up the misconduct.

According to the law firm that filed this lawsuit that meant that one of the plaintiffs

abusers was allowed to stay on the district's payroll, and eventually abuse another one

of those plaintiffs years later.

Even though there were multiple years of reporting and the warning signs and yet they failed

to act.

What these women discovered in 2025 was not just an isolated incident, but a deeply disturbing

pattern of teacher student sexual abuse that happened over decades.

As we allege in our lawsuit, this school board, it's deliberate indifference, created

and protected in an environment, and culture where predators had access to children, and

these students were left unprotected, unheard, and alone.

These women are coming forward now, not only to see justice for the harm they was caused

to them, but also to expose the institutional failures that allowed the abuse to continue,

and to demand meaningful change, so no other students have to endure what they did.

Our lawsuit has three plaintiffs, Grace Williams, who's present and to my right, Amanda

Watts goes, present and to my left, and Brooke LaCount, who cannot be here today.

These three brave young women have come forward with these claims because they want to solve

an institutional problem.

They want to stop the culture where sex abusers, groomers, other school staff who think it's

okay to engage in sexualized conduct and grooming toward students is allowed to flourish.

The goal of this lawsuit is to cause a cultural change, both at Oconto Falls High School,

where this happened and hopefully throughout the region.

Again, our clients are Amanda Watts, Brooke LaCount, and Grace Williams.

These three women are from Oconto Falls, Wisconsin.

All three of them endured sexual grooming and abuse by teachers and coaches while they

were minors enrolled in this district schools.

Through our investigation over the past approximately eight months, we have identified at least

nine teachers, at least, and staff members who engaged in sexual abuse, grooming, or

severe sexualized misconduct with other students at Oconto Falls.

Of those other students, we have identified at least 14 known victims over an approximate

20-year period from 2005 to 2025.

Many years, folks, that children sat in these classrooms, trusted the adults around them,

and were failed by every single person in a position to protect them while at that school.

We're asking you to come forward.

Let's blow this open.

This is a reckoning for this problem.

It's got to stop, and these women have stepped forward to carry the load to make it stop.

All right.

The suit's been filed.

We're waiting on a judge's assignment in a first court date.

Once I have the paperwork, the summons back from the court.

We will send it out for service on Oconto Falls, and we'll keep you further updated as we

go forward.

Thank you very much.

Questions?

So, it seems this lawyer introduced the three plaintiffs in this case, Grace Williams,

Amanda Wattska, and Brooke LaCount.

According to the filing, these women didn't even know each other back in high school, but

that they met later on social media and realized they all had similar stories of a parent

grooming and inappropriate contact with district employees.

Also, by the way, literally breaking, as we recorded this, two more plaintiffs were added

to the lawsuit as part of this amended complaint, both former students of Oconto Falls High

School, Brianna Cain and Kayla Casper.

And we're going to hear from one of those plaintiffs, Amanda, in just a moment.

But first, I want to go through some of these allegations, okay?

And I do want to let you know up front that this filing names a lot of different people.

And we're only going to be identifying the three people that the women directly accused

of abuse, so two of whom have either already been convicted of sex crimes or a currently

awaiting trial and also of note.

The lawsuit doesn't name them as defendants, instead only naming the school district itself.

But you read from the complaint and it says, quote, this is a civil rights action rising

from the sexual grooming and abuse of three students at Oconto Falls High School by teachers

and coaches employed by the board.

Plain if Amanda was groomed and sexually abused by her tech education teacher, David Heisel,

while she was a student at Oconto Falls High School from approximately 2010 to 2013 when

she was between the ages of 16 and 18.

When you talk about liability and responsibility of the school district board, it's because

the people, the educators who are accused of doing all this, they were employed.

They were acting as agents, right, of the employee.

You're talking about not something that they did, not within the scope or the course of

their employment, but that it was connected to it, right?

So I just want to make that clear as we go through it.

As of now though, David Heisel has not faced criminal charges in connection with any sort

of sex crimes, but the complaint does make pretty damning allegations against him and even

provides photos of him with Amanda, which will get more into the specifics in a second.

But the Green Bay press gazette, and by the way, also I should tell you, criminal case

is very different from a civil case, right?

So you might not have sufficient evidence to prosecute, to say that someone committed

a crime beyond a reasonable doubt are higher standard.

Whereas when you talk about potential liability from the same set of facts, the same set of

circumstances, all you need to usually show is a preponderance of the evidence, right?

So more than 50%, it's a lower standard of proof.

So that's why sometimes you can see a finding of liability in a civil case, but maybe no

charges in a criminal case or maybe not guilty in a criminal case.

All right.

Now, the Green Bay press gazette reports that while Heisel's name still appears on a district

website as being a teacher, he's not listed in the school's directory.

Continue from the complaint, plaintiff Brooke was groomed and sexually abused by assistant

volleyball coach Brynn Marie Larson while Brooke was a 15 year old sophomore at a Conto Falls

High School during the 2013-2014 school year.

Plaintiff Grace was groomed and sexually abused by substitute teacher Brynn Marie Larson

while Grace was a 17 year old junior at a Conto Falls High School in February through

April 2018.

Now, those dates kind of give you an idea of how long the district is accused of allowing

a predatory environment with the plaintiff's allegations dating all the way back to 2010,

and some concern in the filing that it could have even been going on even longer.

The lawsuit also names a third former staffer, ex-teacher Gail Gander.

The sixth year old was reportedly fired from the district back in December, charged in

January with five counts of sexual misconduct of school staff, three counts of child enticement,

involving the exposure of genitals, and three counts of exposing his own genitals to

a child.

None of those claims have accused Gander of abuse, but they claim that his charges are

in connection with teenage boys.

To go back to the lawsuit, throughout the periods of their abuse, plaintiffs were minors

who do not understand that their teacher's conduct was predatory, criminal, or constituted

actionable civil wrongs.

Each plaintiff always remembered the facts of what occurred to her, but did not understand

until 2025 that those facts reflected criminal conduct and constitutional violations.

Now, this is important because it speaks to why the women are coming forward to file

this lawsuit now, years later, when there could have been a stature limitations issue,

right, you know, is a time-barred, but also goes to credibility, why do you wait all

this time to file a lawsuit, make these accusations?

So their legal team argues that since the women didn't realize what happened to them was

a crime until 2025, that's when the clock restarts.

Quote.

The theory of plaintiffs' case against the board is not simply that they were sexually

abused, but that they were abused by teachers and coaches under circumstances created by

the board through its pervasive custom and policy of knowing about teacher-student sexual

abuse and failing to act.

A lot of these lawsuits, the question is, did you create an environment for this to happen,

right?

Did you enable this to happen?

Quote, while plaintiffs were aware of their abuse, they had no knowledge and no reason

to know of the board's unwritten policies, customs, and practices tolerating sexual abuse

and grooming across many teachers and students, and the board's deliberate indifference to such

conduct until fall 2025 when they learned of the full scope of teacher-student sexual

abuse at a Conto Falls High School, and the board's decades-long pattern of ignoring

it.

The board's conduct in maintaining such unwritten policies, customs, and practices was

entirely within the board's own control and wholly unknown to plaintiffs prior to 2025.

By the way, let me just quick sidebar here.

These are allegations.

These are allegations, right?

They're making some serious accusations against the school board and the school district,

but, and obviously, they'll have an, obviously, the other side will have an opportunity to

respond and defend themselves, but I just want to make that clear.

In fall of 2025, plaintiffs discovered for the first time that the board had such unwritten

policies, customs, and practices of fostering and condoning sexual abuse and grooming by

discovering that at least nine different teachers, including their own abusers, had

engaged in grooming and or sexual abuse as to at least 14 identified victims spanning

a period of at least 20 years, 2005 to 2025, and that the board had consistently failed

to investigate discipline or otherwise act on reports of abuse.

So the complaint then has this chart, laying out some of the allegations when they reportedly

happened, who was involved, who was allegedly involved.

The alleged victims are identified by their initials.

Some of the people in the perpetrator column are identified as staff members A, B, C, D,

and E.

So for example, staff member A is accused of quote, alleged sexual conduct and ice shack

in approximately 2011.

Staff member B is accused of alleged sexualized quid pro quo for grades between 2012 and 2015.

The chart claims that staff members C and D participated in alleged verbal harassment

on multiple occasions, made propositions to a sugar baby after graduation, and sent

inappropriate social media messages.

The lawsuit then gets into specific claims that are made by Amanda and Grace and Brooke.

I want to start with Amanda.

She claims that she met David Heisel in her sophomore year, that she was interested in

drafting and architecture, so she took several classes with Heisel, the teacher, this

tech education teacher.

She claims that Heisel showed her special attention, nominating her to be student of the month

and helping her to go to a competition called Skills USA.

And she claims that his interactions with her went beyond a normal teacher, student relationship.

Heisel began discussing personal subjects with Amanda, including his personal life, interests

and hobbies, while asking Amanda about her personal interests, home life and hobbies.

Heisel started inviting Amanda on drives during her sophomore year, continuing through her

senior year.

During these drives, they would go to Heisel's job sites, go out to eat and sit in his

vehicle and talk for hours.

Amanda does not have an exact count, but averse these drives occurred at least weekly, sometimes

multiple times per week, over approximately three years, including her junior and senior

years.

Destinations included his construction sites, Green Bay, his house, and his grandmother's

house.

During these drives, Heisel discussed his sex life with Amanda, inquired about her sexual

history and experiences, and discussed his home life, his marriage, and his children

while alone with Amanda.

Amanda was 16 and a sophomore when these drives began.

So according to Amanda, Heisel told her about his upbringing as a Christian, reportedly

told her he could take care of like a good Christian man would, or could take care of

her like a good Christian man would.

She claims that he told her his wife had cheated on him, but that he was going to leave

for Amanda, and she says she believes she was in this legitimate romantic relationship.

And she even allegedly provided a few photos from her high school years that she says, backs

up her claims that Heisel was openly inappropriate with her.

For example, there's a photo of a tape measure, or there's seemingly a photo of a tape

measure, that Amanda kept with her, that kept with her supplies in the classroom, with

her maiden name on it, and she claims that Heisel put his own initials DH at the bottom,

that there's another apparent photograph showing Amanda posing with a male student.

And Heisel, apparently in a black sweatshirt, is off to the side, looking at the pair and

what Amanda described as a kind of defensive posture.

There's also a photo of Heisel and Amanda at her graduation from a Conto Falls High, and

she's holding Heisel's young son, making it seem like they were a family, that seems

to be the characterization there.

And according to Amanda, I mean, the real thing here is that she claims Heisel sexually

assaulted her during an out of town trip, quote, in or about spring 2012, Amanda attended

a skills USA competition at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells.

During this trip, Heisel entered Amanda's hotel room and scoped out the room, and bathrooms

for other students, Amanda immediately felt threatened and fearful.

As Heisel attempted to engage Amanda in sexual activity, she was able to leave the room

and return to the common hallway, Heisel followed her into the hotel stairway.

The lawsuit then goes on to describe an assault in the stairway in very graphic detail,

and she claims that Heisel didn't rape her, but only because she managed to convince

him to stop, because he was a married man, and then years later Amanda started to open

up about what she says happened to her.

The lawsuit reads as Amanda began to investigate and discuss her experiences with others.

She learned for the first time that numerous other students had experienced teacher on

student sexual abuse at a Conto Falls High School, and that the board had created an environment

in which such abuse was enabled and empowered to occur.

Amanda learned in 2025 that the board's pattern of knowledge of teacher student abuse and

failing to act spanned at least 20 years, 2005 to 2025, involved at least nine different

teachers and affected at least 14 identified victims.

Prior to 2025, Amanda did not know that the board had a pervasive problem with other teachers

engaging in abuse and grooming and failed to act, or that the board's systemic failures

had created a culture in which teachers like Heisel could abuse students without consequence.

Amanda did not learn that the board injured her through its own institutional conduct

until 2025.

So this goes to the questions again of why filing now, why didn't you make these accusations

earlier on, it's about a knowledge component, and look, an underlying part about this

will be trying to prove what happened or allegedly happened in 2012, which could be

a challenge, you know, is there corroborating evidence, is there corroborating witnesses,

is there photos, other text messages, things like that.

Now, Amanda did speak at this news conference announcing the federal lawsuit.

Take a look.

Are either you comfortable talking about that?

Do I see that?

I feel like we just began to share our stories.

We're not even completely there yet.

My personal abuser has not been held accountable at all at this point, and we're over a year

from me coming forward.

So it's been an ongoing cause of just hurt and pain.

And so coming forward, having the voice to do so, and the means to do so, and the support

to do so is important because not everybody has that opportunity that is in the same position

that we are in.

How does the phrase, this is taking up to top five, six, and nine, and a few people

over the livestream, and this means talk about how the public looks at this.

It's got to stop, right?

So it takes somebody to have the courage to step up and stop it, otherwise it's going

to continue for another 20 years.

And then other plaintiffs will be in their motherhood or their later years and uncover

the trauma that they experienced in their earlier years.

And I just want to prevent that as much as possible because it has impacted my life greatly.

Okay.

Now I want to talk about Brookl account.

So she and Grace Williams claimed that they were both targeted by Bryn Marie Larson,

who would end up spending some time in prison for sexual assault.

So Brook claims that she met Larson through Larson's mom Don, who was head coach of the

school's volleyball team.

Larson was apparently the assistant coach had filled in as her substitute teacher is

needed.

Quote.

This is from the complaint.

Around August 2013, Bryn Marie Larson began sending Snapchat messages to Brook often

late at night.

Bryn Marie Larson began sending Brook photographs of her naked body and asking Brook to reciprocate.

Brook had just turned 15 years old and felt uncertain, confused, and pressured because

Bryn was one of her volleyball coaches.

Larson says things quickly escalated to Larson asking her out when she was just 15 years

old.

They did Panera.

Then Larson pulled into a target parking lot, put the seats in her vehicle down and

engaged Brook in sexual activity.

The lawsuit says Brook did not know what sex between women was and was not interested

in sexual activity with women, but she felt obligated to comply because of the power

differential between her and Bryn Marie Larson and because of her youth and in experience.

On the same time, Bryn Marie Larson told Brook she could turn her into a college athlete.

Bryn Marie Larson also began attempting to separate Brook from her family by telling her

that her family did not come to enough games and did not care about her, but that Brook

could always rely on Bryn.

And Larson started inviting Brook over to her house and Brook would end up spending

the night and the lawsuit claims that Larson's own mom, Dawn, knew what was going on.

Bryn Marie Larson had Brook's sleep in her bed where Larson would sleep nude and engage

or attempt to engage Brook in sexual acts.

Larson also played pornography on her television.

When Brook stayed overnight, Dawn Larson, health education teacher, head coach and mandated

reporter was present in the home and aware of Brook's presence.

Dawn Larson observed Brook and Bryn Marie Larson snuggling on the couch and had to have

been aware that they were sleeping in the same bed.

Now in 2014, police started investigating Larson and Brook says she was terrified and

confused and denied having sexual contact with her assistant coach.

Despite the police investigation, nothing was done to stop Bryn Marie Larson's contact

with Brook.

Larson subsequently showed up at Brook's mother's workplace, sent Brook flowers and continued

engaging with her online.

Brook says her so-called relationship with Larson continued, but Brook actually ended

up switching schools because rumors around school were rampant that she was a lesbian

involved with Larson.

Now Larson also moved to another district for a while, but would eventually, would seemingly

be allowed to return to a Conto Falls.

So the lawsuit refers to the school's athletic director and what he allegedly knew about

what was going on.

Quote in the police report from the 2014 investigation, the investigating officer recounted the following

regarding his conversation with Moynihan.

By the way, I should also tell you this is all potential evidence on Larson.

I did speak with Jerry Moynihan, the Conto Falls high school athletic director.

Jerry said that he remembered people complaining to him about seeing Bryn and Brook together,

but that he wasn't really able to substantiate anything.

Jerry said that he did have a discussion with Bryn about boundaries.

Now the complaint goes on to name more school teachers and staff who would have seen Larson

and Brook together in situations that were at the minimum inappropriate.

And then the complaint references the third plane of Grace Williams.

She claims she was 17, a junior at a Conto Falls in the 2017-2018 school year that Larson

had been allowed to return to the district as a substitute teacher around the same time.

Quote in 2025, Amanda contacted Brook about Amanda's own experiences of abuse at a Conto

Falls high school.

Through this contact and subsequent investigation in 2025, Brook learned for the first time

that despite the 2014 police investigation, the board permitted Larson to return to a Conto

Falls as a substitute teacher in 2018, where she victimized Grace Williams insubstantially

the same manner.

So Larson was once again accused of using social media to kick off this sick behavior.

The lawsuit states in or about February 2018, Bryn Marie Larson added Grace on Snapchat.

Grace accepted because she knew Larson was adding popular students.

By the way, when I talked about evidence before, if you have the social media proof, right?

If you have photos, messages, it's all Kate.

Grace says that all of her friends were also communicating with Larson, but that Larson

singled her out, saying she would leave her girlfriend for Grace, and allegedly started

doing things like sending her flowers and inviting her to her home.

And during one of those visits to Larson's home, the lawsuit claims Larson invited Grace

to her house along with other students, including TFNMK.

When Grace went to Larson's house, Larson asked Grace to come to the bedroom with her and

began making out with Grace in her room.

Grace tried to stop it so she could leave peacefully.

Grace then saw Don Larson, who was present in the home at the time.

Grace and Don locked eyes and Don walked away.

This occurred in or about March 2018.

Yeah.

After the bedroom incident, Grace told her mother about what happened.

Grace's mother wanted to go to the police, but Grace did not want to because she was

scared of being bullied or harassed by other students.

Grace eventually disclosed the abuse to her friend TF, who went to the school resource

officer and reported it.

The school resource officer spoke with Grace and had her explain what happened.

Grace believes the school principal and guidance counselor were also notified.

Despite these reports, the board conducted no formal investigation and Grace was never

formally interviewed by school officials.

Grace was not given any emotional support, counseling or other supportive measures.

Students began blaming Grace for Bryn and Don's departure.

Grace's story was not taken seriously by school officials and for her, no one really

care.

So Larson pleaded no contest in February of 2021 to third degree sexual assault.

This is according to the Green Bay press Gazette, a little bit different than pleading guilty.

You're basically saying, I'm not going to fight this.

It's different than making a formal admission.

A charge of second degree sexual assault of a child and two counts of child enticement

were dismissed as part of a plea and she went to prison for two years.

It was released in 2023 and the lawsuit goes into other allegations against teachers and

staff at Conto Falls that includes Gail Gander, an English arts teacher who worked at the

high school for decades.

Quote honor about December 15, 2025, Gander was arrested on criminal charges for allegations

of misconduct during his employment with the district.

The arrest relates to allegations from five student victims whose allegations are sufficiently

recent to fall within the applicable statute of limitations.

An additional victim of Gander's misconduct known as MD has come forward stating, I wish

I had the courage to speak up about Gander back in 05, but I didn't.

MD statement indicates that Gander was engaging in sexual conduct with students as early

as 2005, meaning the board allowed Gander's abuse to continue for at least 20 years.

That's the quote from the complaint.

Other staff members were apparently accused of going to high school parties with students,

creating an alleged list of the hottest students in school, touching teenagers inappropriately

and full view of their classmates.

So this lawsuit includes multiple different appendices which contain more charts of

alleged abuse.

You have appendix A. It's titled Pattern of Abuse, Victim's Perpetrator's Conduct Board

Knowledge.

Appendix B. Timeline of reports on the board's apparent response.

Appendix C. List mandated reporters that the plaintiffs claim failed in their duties to

protect the students.

All three plaintiffs claim that their interactions with the Conto Falls staff left them with ongoing

discomfort.

PTSD.

More harm.

Again, this goes to the damages calculation.

They all are suing for violation of Title IX and a Monel claim, Title IX, of course,

protects students from discrimination or harm related to their sex.

A Monel claim refers to a deprivation of rights to bodily integrity under the 14th Amendment,

so the women say the district and its employees violated that.

And the suit doesn't give a specific amount of damages or compensation that the plaintiffs

are looking for, but instead says, quote, all three plaintiffs suffered substantial damages,

including loss of equal educational opportunities, emotional distress, and other compensatory

damages.

Wherefore, Amanda Brooke and Grace respectfully request that this court enter judgment

in their favor and against the board award compensatory damages and amounts to be determined

at trial, either injunctive relief requiring the board to institute adequate policies and

procedures to prevent teacher-student grooming and sexual abuse and grant such other relief

as the court deems just improper.

Now local affiliate action to news reached out to the school district for a response to

this lawsuit, the district sent them a statement that says, in part, plaintiffs threatened to

sue the district and made substantial monetary demands in August 2025.

Since August, the district has responded to plaintiffs and their attorneys to recognize

the wrongs by these two former employees, but also to help them understand that the district

took prompt action when it was made aware of the misconduct.

The district is confident that its past actions and its response to plaintiffs' demands have

satisfied its duty to keep its students and schools safe.

By working with law enforcement, the district has addressed each of these situations, plaintiffs

allegations and their complaint about other staff, and other students have also been investigated

by the district.

The district's staff of excellent professional educators strive every day to deliver a great

educational experience for all students.

This is not diminished by the inexcusable actions of these identified former employees

in every instance in which the district became aware of allegations against an individual,

definitive action has been taken.

The district is not able to comment further on the details of this lawsuit as it does

on going matter.

The district remains confident, however, that it will continue to act promptly to any allegations

of misconduct.

So it's interesting because the school district has been served with the lawsuit.

They've issued a summons.

I'm sure they're going to file a formal answer, denying the allegations, maybe putting forward

affirmative defences for why this case can't move forward.

But it's interesting about what they seem to admit to and what they don't, and whether

or not they're going to take this to trial to clear their name or not.

Because if they go forward with a settlement, there's a number of reasons why you'd want

to go through a settlement, right?

You don't want the time, the expense of going through a trial, discovery, what information

is going to be shared.

That could be problematic.

But if you issue a settlement or if you go through with a settlement, there will be many

of those out there who believe that the school is just trying to wipe this way, right?

And so it's tough.

It's tough.

Interesting to see what will happen, but that's all we have for you right now here on

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