Woman's lawsuit faults CMS' background check

A former South Mecklenburg High School student who says she had a 13-month sexual relationship with her high school band director is suing him and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board, claiming negligence and infliction of emotional distress.

The band director, Richard Priode, 46, pleaded guilty in October 2009 to felony indecent liberties with a student.

The young woman suing Priode, named only as "Jane Doe" in the suit, says she was the victim in that case.

"He knew how to play the game...," the victim told a judge in 2009. "I was a different person than I knew I was.... I felt trapped inside his world."

Priode directed bands in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia before he came to South Meck in 2006.

According to the lawsuit, filed Friday in Mecklenburg Superior Court, Priode had a history of "inappropriate behavior with students" at his previous schools. The lawsuit alleges the school board would have known about those incidents if it conducted a proper background check.

The woman suing was a junior and a member of the band when Priode arrived at South Meck in the fall of 2006.

The next spring, the lawsuit says, Priode began making sexual innuendos toward her.

Eventually, when she was 16 and he was 42, he persuaded her to engage in a sex act, the suit says.

Their sexual encounters, which began in spring 2007 and continued through her senior year, occurred at the school, in Priode's office, the band room and the music library, the suit says. They also had sex on a school-sponsored band trip in April 2008, the suit says.

At one point, a woman working with the band's color guard became concerned about sexual innuendos and remarks by Priode and told the principal, the lawsuit says, but that woman was later fired from her position.

The young woman contacted police in 2009; Priode was arrested after a two-month investigation. After he pleaded guilty, Priode was placed on two years probation and was ordered to undergo treatment for sex offenders.

In 2009, CMS told the Observer the school system had done a thorough background check on Priode before he was hired.

The lawsuit says the school board was negligent for failing to detect the ongoing inappropriate relationship and failing to follow up on the color guard instructor's complaint.

The lawsuit alleges the woman has suffered emotional distress and mental suffering requiring psychological and psychiatric care. She "abandoned her love of playing an instrument in band" and gave up a scholarship to play in college, the suit says.