QuickTake:

Sofia Miranda filed a lawsuit alleging that her teacher, Mike Shultz, touched her inappropriately and made suggestive comments while in the classroom alone together. She is asking for $750,000 in damages.

A woman is suing the Junction City School District and a former teacher, alleging he sexually groomed her through suggestive touching and comments from 2022 to 2024 when she was a student at Junction City High School.

Sofia Miranda filed her lawsuit Nov. 17 against the district and former teacher Mike Shultz.

The Junction City School District did not immediately respond to Lookout Eugene-Springfield’s questions about the allegations or Shultz’s employment status. According to the Register-Guard, Superintendent Troy Stoops of the Junction City School District said Shultz worked for the district for four years, resigning in 2024 for personal reasons. Lookout could not reach Shultz.

Mark Waddell, chief of the Junction City Police Department, said Junction City police and the Oregon Department of Human Services investigated Shultz for misconduct allegations but did not file charges. Waddell did not specify when the investigation took place.

Miranda is represented by Lourdes Sánchez and Apolinar Montero-Sánchez, Eugene-based attorneys who specialize in personal injury, workers compensation and auto accident cases. The attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit’s allegations

According to the official complaint, Miranda was a student and “teaching assistant” for Shultz at Junction City High School from 2022 to 2024.

The complaint alleges that while Miranda graded papers and Shultz gave her instruction, Shultz would shut the classroom door, close the blinds and touch Miranda in sexually suggestive ways — “smacking plaintiff on the buttocks,” “rubbing plaintiff back near her bra line,” touching her thigh and belly button and pressing his body against hers. It also says Shultz made inappropriate comments toward Miranda and would make other students leave if they tried to come into the classroom while he and Miranda were alone together.

Shultz’s moments alone with Miranda happened five to 10 times over the course of three years, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit contends the teacher used these sessions to “sexually groom and control plaintiff in order to arouse and gratify his own sexual desires and to manipulate plaintiff.” It names Shultz’s actions as molestation and sexual abuse.

The lawsuit alleges that the school district was aware Shultz behaved in “harmful” ways toward female students and did not take action to remove him, even after Miranda complained about his actions toward her.

Compensation for psychological trauma

Through four claims including child sexual battery, premise liability, intentional infliction of emotional distress and discrimination, the lawsuit says that Miranda suffered psychological damage from Shultz’s actions. Miranda is asking for $750,000 total from Shultz and the school district for damages and past and future psychological treatment.

“Plaintiff suffered and continues to suffer from fear, anxiety, worry, and guilt,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff has a deep and unresolved anxiety that Mike Shultz is acting as a predator and continuing to abuse young females.”

Lilly is a graduate of Indiana University and has worked as a journalist at the Indianapolis Star and in Burlington, Vermont, as well as working as a foreign language teacher in France. She covers education and children's issues for Lookout Eugene-Springfield.