Jay church, school named in lawsuit

Tuesday, November 1st 2005, 10:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Two Delaware County women are suing a church in Jay and former Jay school officials who they say spread false rumors about them after they reported being raped by a Jay school bus driver.

Julia Haskins and Natasha Dick of Jay filed the sex discrimination lawsuit in Tulsa against the Jay School District, former assistant Superintendent Gary Brewster, former Principal Mike Seifried and Southside Church of Christ.

The two 18-year-olds say the school and school officials failed to investigate or report allegations of sexual misconduct by former bus driver William Stroud. And the two say Brewster used his position as an elder at the church to call the two women "liars, sluts and mentally retarded."

Stroud was given 15-year suspended sentences after pleading no contest to charges of rape and lewd molestation.