LAKEVILLE — The Freetown Lakeville School District should have taken steps to protect a Freetown Lakeville Middle School student from a former substitute teacher and faculty advisor convicted on multiple charges of raping her, according to a lawsuit filed Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court.

Gilbert Hernandez, then 58, was found in April 2024 guilty by a Fall River Superior Court jury of five counts of rape of a child, aggravated by more than a 10-year age difference, two counts of rape of a child by force, four counts of indecent assault and battery, and two counts of dissemination of obscene matter to a child.

The Taunton resident was sentenced to 30 to 40 years in state prison.

The lawsuit against the district claims that school officials “knew, or should have known, that (Hernandez) had a history of student sexual assaults, but took no action to protect students from him.’’

The crimes took place in 2018 when the student was 14 and Hernandez was 53 and married with young children, according to the suit. Hernandez “sexually harassed, assaulted and raped (the victim) on multiple occasions during 2018, including some of which occurred in the middle school classrooms,’’ according to the lawsuit. The victim was not named but was referred to as Jane Jones. 

Hernandez “began grooming’’ Jones when she was 14, “singling her out for special attention, praise and constant compliments.’’

The lawsuit alleges that at least two educators had spoken to Hernandez about his behavior. A student reported her concerns that Hernandez was “getting too close to’’ Jones.

Hernandez wrote in a text to Jones that one teacher subsequently spoke to him about “me playing favorites with you’’ and another cited being “worried that since you had social anxiety I was taking advantage of you,’’ the lawsuit alleges.

No further investigation was made, and no other action was taken, the lawsuit states. 

The lawsuit accuses the district of negligence, negligent training, supervision and retention, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, battery and assault.

As the year went on, the lawsuit claims, Jones’ “distress was obvious, because she was having problems concentrating, was becoming ill, and had visible emotional episodes.’’

But “no Free-Lake employees, who were mandated reporters, made any report of this information to the Department of Children and Families or the Lakeville Police Department, despite the requirement to do’’ so, the suit states.

Jones “has suffered and continues to suffer severe and permanent mental distress and emotional harm, as well as other consequential damages as a result of’’ the district’s “negligence,’’ the lawsuit states.

A jury trial was requested. Freetown-Lakeville school officials did not respond to a request for comment.

A separate suit was filed on behalf of the victim against the Fall River Diocese, related to Hernandez serving as the victim’s religion teacher at St. John Neumann in Freetown. “The teachers, of the parish religious education program knew, because they observed, that Hernandez was constantly engaged in inappropriate, sexualized conduct with the plaintiff, but they took no action to protect her from him, and further, they failed to file any reports,’’ that lawsuit claims.

A spokesperson reported that the diocese of Fall River had no comment on the litigation.