Ë®¹ûÅÉAV

In a lawsuit filed June 6 in Cayuga County Supreme Court, the former student said they were sexually abused from 2015 to 2016 by former teacher and coach Lexie Hilliard at Moravia High School. Using the pseudonym "L.D.," the former student also said the Moravia Central School District and its board of education should have known about the alleged abuse, but failed to prevent or report it.

The lawsuit was filed under the New York Child Victims Act against Hilliard, the district and the board. It seeks damages in an amount to be determined at a jury trial. 

The plaintiff's attorney, Jared Lacertosa of firm Weitz & Luxenberg, told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV that his client "looks forward to pursuing justice in the court and taking the legal remedies that are available." 

The district's attorney, Christopher M. Militello of firm Costello, Cooney & Fearon, declined comment on the lawsuit to Ë®¹ûÅÉAV.

Hilliard's attorney, Jeffrey Chabrowe, did not respond to a request for comment by Ë®¹ûÅÉAV.

The lawsuit accuses Hilliard of befriending the plaintiff in late 2014, when the former was a basketball and soccer coach at Moravia and the latter was in 10th grade and 15 years old. Hilliard's "grooming techniques," as the lawsuit described them, included academic mentorship, driving them to and from school, spending time with them before and after school, and saying she would "take care" of them.

In February 2015, the lawsuit said, Hilliard's sexual abuse began. It went on through the end of that school year at Moravia High School, in Hilliard's car and in her residence, the lawsuit continued. The plaintiff also accused Hilliard of abusing them and providing them alcohol during an out-of-state trip she took them on that summer. 

The next school year, Hilliard began teaching at the district's Millard Fillmore Elementary School. The lawsuit said she continued to sexually abuse the plaintiff in her classroom at the school, where they had begun working as a teaching aide. Hilliard also allegedly urged the then-16-year-old student to leave their high school classes and go to the elementary school. 

Around that time, the lawsuit said, Hilliard told the elementary school principal she was meeting with the plaintiff there, as well as after and outside of school. The principal — who according to Ë®¹ûÅÉAV archives was Howard Seamans — and the school's teachers were therefore aware of the "inappropriate relationship" but failed to contact police or otherwise try to stop it, the lawsuit continued.

The plaintiff graduated from Moravia High School in the summer of 2016. After they turned 18 a couple years later, the lawsuit said, Hilliard coerced them to move to Montana. There, they were manipulated and pressured into sexual activity by Hilliard until the abuse ended in 2019, the lawsuit continued. Both still reside in Montana, Lacertosa said, but in different parts of the state.

As a result of the sexual abuse, the lawsuit said, the plaintiff endured physical, psychological and emotional suffering, medical expenses and other economic damages. Hilliard was "willful, wanton, malicious, reckless and/or outrageous in her disregard" for their safety, the lawsuit continued, and the district failed to enact or enforce adequate policies and procedures to prevent and stop abuse.