Missouri School District Settles for $3.1 Million After Hiring a Convicted Sex Offender as Bus Driver
Won by O'Brien Law Firm, P.C..
On April 27 and 28, 2023, a bus driver for the Crawford County R-1 School District in rural Missouri molested a female student under the age of 12 on his route, and the bus's surveillance cameras recorded it. The driver, James H. Philpot, had a California record going back more than fifty years, including a 1968 indecent exposure charge and a charge of assault with intent to rape, yet the district hired him in 2021. Philpot pleaded guilty on February 5, 2024, to one count of molesting a child under 12 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Rather than sue, the family filed a charge with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, and the district agreed in April 2024 to pay $3.1 million, settling before the commission issued a right-to-sue letter and before any lawsuit was filed. The girl's attorney, Grant Boyd, said the evidence he reviewed showed the district knew of Philpot's prior sex offense convictions, and that the family had been told the district's screening looked back only 20 to 25 years.
What happened
Crawford County R-1 School District, a rural Missouri district southwest of St. Louis, hired James H. Philpot to drive a school bus in 2021. Philpot was in his early seventies and carried a California criminal record stretching back more than fifty years: a 1968 indecent exposure charge, and a charge of assault with intent to rape that published accounts place somewhere between 1969 and 1972. He drove for the district until the spring of 2023.
On April 27 and 28, 2023, Philpot molested a female student under the age of 12 while driving his route. Cameras mounted on the bus recorded the abuse. Investigators reviewed the footage, and Philpot was charged within days.
Philpot pleaded guilty on February 5, 2024, to one count of molesting a child under 12. A judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison, and he was sent to the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center.
The girl's family, represented by attorney Grant Boyd, did not file a lawsuit. They filed a charge against the school district with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, and the district agreed in April 2024 to pay $3.1 million, settling before the commission issued a right-to-sue letter and before the dispute reached a courtroom. The Sullivan Independent News reported the agreement on May 8, 2024. Boyd said the evidence he had reviewed showed the district "absolutely knew" about Philpot's prior sex offense convictions before the abuse happened. He also said the family had been given an explanation about the screening the district ran: "There seemed to be some kind of indication given to the family by someone at the district that they were only looking at things that occurred in the last 20 to 25 years." Philpot's California offenses were by then more than half a century old.
Boyd told KSDK the recovery was significant given the legal protections public entities enjoy in Missouri, and said settling spared the girl the litigation process. "There's no amount of money that can ever rewind the clock for child sexual abuse survivor," he told the Sullivan Independent News, "but with this settlement, it will ensure that whatever this girl needs moving forward in her life, and whatever she wants to pursue, whatever her passions are, she will not have a single impediment."
Because the claim settled before any suit was filed, there is no jury award to reduce and no appeal to track. Philpot is serving his 15-year sentence, and the $3.1 million payment stands as the outcome of the family's claim against the district that hired him.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Sullivan Independent News, May 8, 2024: reports the $3.1 million settlement agreed the prior month, names Grant Boyd as the family's attorney and quotes him on what the district knew and on the 20 to 25 year screening window, gives Philpot's age, 2021 hiring, 1968 and 1969 California charges, the April 27-28, 2023 incidents, his February 5, 2024 guilty plea and 15-year sentence
- 2.KSDK (NBC St. Louis), 2024: independently reports the $3.1 million payment by Crawford County R-1 after it hired Philpot despite his sex offense record, names Grant Boyd as the victim's attorney, reports that the family filed a charge with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights and settled before a right-to-sue letter issued, and quotes Boyd on the protections public entities enjoy
- 3.Sullivan Independent News, February 9, 2024: independently confirms Philpot's guilty plea to molesting a child under 12, the 15-year sentence, and that he was employed as a Crawford County R-1 School District bus driver
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