MASON, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Mason Public Schools will pay $350,000 to settle a federal lawsuit connected to a reported sexual assault by the son of two prominent Ingham County figures while in a middle school classroom.

The lawsuit, filed in January 2024 against the district and several other people, claimed the boy digitally penetrated a female student in May 2022 during a class. The girl reported the incident, which prompted a criminal investigation by police and a Title IX investigation by the school.

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The alleged victim chose not to file criminal charges since the district expelled the boy for the 2022-23 school year.  Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum and her husband Ingham County Detective Sergeant Brad Delaney, the boy’s parents, successfully petitioned the school board for his reinstatement.

Byrum, a Democrat, is running for Michigan Secretary of State.

Brandon Wolfe, the attorney for the girl and her family, wrote in filings that the district’s reinstatement of the boy showed “complete indifference” to the girl’s educational environment, and “acted with deliberate indifference to known acts of sexual misconduct.”

In May 2024, a federal judge dismissed four defendants from the lawsuit, but allowed litigation against the district to proceed. At that time, attorney for the victim Brandon Wolfe told Michigan News Source “The court sides with [us] that the school dropped the ball.” Wolfe referenced the reinstatement of the alleged perpetrator, a school of choice student. He said the district also ignored a Personal Protection Order (PPO) when it implemented a “no contact” policy between the alleged perpetrator and victim.