Minnesota Supreme Court: Schools can be held liable for hiring decisions after sexual assault case

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that public schools can be held liable for their hiring practices after a Minneapolis charter school didn’t perform a thorough background check and allowed a teacher and sports instructor with a history of sexual assault allegations to join its staff.

The teacher, Aaron Hjermstad, was hired at the Mastery School — now known as Best Academy — in 2016 and went on to sexually assault several students. Hjermstad was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2022 on four charges of criminal sexual conduct. Last year, he was indicted in Hennepin County District Court on charges of sexually assaulting 12 other children under the age of 13. He is at the state prison in Moose Lake.

A lawsuit brought by one of his minor victims at the Mastery School had been dismissed at the district court level and that decision was upheld by the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Both courts ruled that the charter school was protected because school hiring decisions are immune from liability under state law.

The state Supreme Court overturned that, with Justice Paul Thissen writing in his 36-page opinion that the court refused to concur that all hiring decisions are protected and said the protection from liability must be “contextual and circumstances-specific.”

Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represented the minor victim, said at a news conference Wednesday that this was a monumental day for children who have been sexually assaulted by teachers.

“The Minnesota Supreme Court finally has determined that we have chosen to protect the kids in the schools instead of the predators,” Anderson said. “Credit to the courageous survivors with whom we stand and work every day for allowing us to stand with them to do something to protect other kids.”

Christian Shafer, the attorney representing Best Academy, said the school would “determine potential next steps in this ongoing litigation.”

“The Academy disagrees with the court’s decision,” Shafer said. “The Academy is confident that it will prevail against the remaining claims on remand.”

The Mastery School, which hired Hjermstad, technically no longer exists because it merged with Best Academy in 2021 and took that name. The Supreme Court noted that charter schools are designated school districts in state law.

Hjermstad taught at Excell Academy Charter School in Brooklyn Park from 2001 to 2015 and worked as a basketball and baseball coach at Hospitality House in Minneapolis from 1998 to 2020.

In 2015, a student at Excell reported that Hjermstad had sexually abused him three times. Hjermstad was investigated by the Department of Education, which determined there was insufficient evidence. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office declined to file charges.

Excell did not renew Hjermstad’s contract.

When Best Academy hired Hjermstad, the school did not contact either Excell or Hospitality House. The school had contracted with Harvest Network of Schools for hiring, and the process included background checks and reference letters but did not include calls to former employers.

When Hjermstad was interviewed at Best Academy, he told the principal his contract had not been renewed at Excell because of budget cuts. He did not provide answers to why he left Excell or whether Best Academy could contact Excell. He also asked if reference letters were “really necessary.”

Hjermstad’s conviction in 2022 stemmed from sexual assaults that occurred at his house when boys he coached spent the night before or after sporting events. He assaulted them, exposed his genitals to them and offered one money for sexual favors.

The new charges, filed in September of last year, came after he fled the state and was arrested in Idaho in 2021. Police there found “thousands of videos of him assaulting children, some at his Brooklyn Center home.” That data was turned over to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which began an investigation and discovered 12 new victims.

Anderson alluded to “hundreds” of victims in his news conference on Wednesday.

In arguing the case, Anderson said additional sexual assaults could have been stopped if Best Academy had done a proper background check on Hjermstad.

Molly Burke, an attorney with Anderson’s firm who worked on the case, told the Star Tribune in 2023 that it was a simple process for determining whether to hire a previously employed teacher: “You ask one question: Would you hire this person again? You get a ‘yes’ or a ‘no,’ and it tells you everything you need to know.”

The state Supreme Court ruled that the school needed to prove that its decision to not obtain recommendation letters for Hjermstad or call his references was a policy decision. The court ruled that the school failed in that obligation.

“Best Academy’s own hiring process documents suggest that reference letters and contacts were necessary,” Thissen wrote.

He added: “At the very least, it seems just as likely that a day-to-day operation decision was made to hire Hjermstad without following the otherwise required step of obtaining reference letters.”

Hennepin County District Judge Jamie Anderson dismissed all claims against Best Academy in 2022. She ruled that Hjermstad’s sexual assault of the students was “not foreseeable” and that while the hiring was not perfect, Hjermstad had passed a background check and had a valid teaching license when he was hired.

The Court of Appeals reviewed the negligent hiring claim against the school and determined the district court was right to dismiss because, under the Minnesota Municipal Tort Liability Act, school districts were given immunity for “hiring, training, and supervision of their employees.”

Anderson had argued that that meant schools could never be held liable for hiring decisions.

The Supreme Court’s opinion is a lengthy treatise on why a government entity can be held liable for hiring practices under state law involving the discretionary-function exception, which makes government actions immune from civil liability.

Thissen wrote that judicial discretion can be applied to the balance between protecting the decision-making of the legislative and executive branches while “providing relief to Minnesotans who have been harmed” by an entity that operates within those branches.

The Supreme Court ruled that relief applies to students claiming liability for being harmed by a teacher because of the hiring practices of a school.

Thissen’s opinion was joined by Chief Justice Natalie Hudson and Justices Gordon Moore, Karl Procaccini and Thissen. Justices Sarah Hennesy and Theodora Gaïtas did not participate in the case.

The court ordered the lawsuit sent back to Hennepin County District Court to consider whether there are valid claims for damages.

Anderson said that the ruling will protect students and hold schools accountable when they hire teachers with past allegations of sexual assault.

“It’s not just about this school and their choices to protect this offender,” Anderson said. “This now applies across the board, to all public schools in Minnesota. So administrators, principals and school districts, beware. There is a peril and a danger that you have ignored.”