$15M settlement reached in lawsuit vs. Federal Way Public Schools

Published 9:27 am Wednesday, May 27, 2026

A lawsuit resulted in a $15 million settlement related to allegations against Federal Way Public Schools over a teacher who sexually assaulted two students.

According to Cole Douglas, an attorney representing victims SC and KK, a $15 million settlement was reached following a lawsuit against the school district alleging gender-based discrimination and negligence. These allegations stem from two former students, one of whom is a victim in a criminal case that resulted in a conviction, who said Glenfield Watkins sexually assaulted them when he was their teacher at Totem Middle School, now named Evergreen Middle School.

According to the criminal complaint filed against the school district, the sexual grooming, sexual harassment and sexual abuse suffered by the plaintiffs by Watkins is unlawful gender-based discrimination, which occurred in a public accommodation. Regarding negligence, the complaint states that Federal Way Public Schools had the duty to protect the plaintiffs from sexual grooming, sexual harassment and sexual abuse suffered by the plaintiffs.

On Dec. 1, 2023, Watkins was sentenced to 14 months in prison for rape of a child in the third degree for assaulting SC, with credit for time served, and was released on July 25, 2024.

The second woman, who is going by KK in the complaint, also alleged she was the victim of sexual assault by Watkins, though he was not convicted of this assault.

Federal Way Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

The settlement

According to Douglas, the court ruled in his favor regarding the gender-based discrimination claim for SC, and after subsequent motions, the district continued to deny liability. Douglas said that because of the evidence presented during litigation and his clients’ standing up to the district, the district admitted liability, but court documents state that the district still disputed the extent of its liability.

Douglas said that after mediation, a resolution led to the settlement. Douglas said that despite the district admitting liability in court for gender-based discrimination and negligence, they fought it tooth and nail.

“The district would say they admitted liability, but in reality, they didn’t admit liability until they were backed into a corner through our aggressive litigation and our clients standing up to them and saying that it was wrong,” Douglas said. “So I wouldn’t say it was an admission by any means.”

According to court documents, the parties reached a settlement on Jan. 17, and the case was dismissed with prejudice on April 20 after Federal Way Public Schools sent the money to the plaintiffs.

Douglas said that for his clients, SC and KK, their main goal was for no one else to experience what they went through, and money talks, so the hope is that the result of this case forces change. However, Douglas said he does not believe the district took accountability, but rather, that they saw the plaintiffs as truthful and passionate about obtaining justice, and that they evaluated the risks.

“When they did that, they made what was most likely a smart analysis by coming to the conclusion that they needed to resolve this sooner than later because I think at trial it would have been damning for the district,” he said.

Regarding Watkins’ prison sentence, Douglas said he doesn’t think anyone is pleased with the result, including his clients, but the criminal sentence is less focused on the victims, while the civil side is where survivors can regain control and be properly compensated for what happened to them.

The assaults

Watkins is accused of having sex with the girl at least three times between Sept. 1, 2015, and May 31, 2016, when he was 55 years old, according to charging documents.

Watkins was SC’s math teacher in seventh grade, and at that time, SC said he would always stare at her, according to court documents. Following that, in eighth grade, when Watkins was again her math teacher, he began to tell her she was cute and beautiful, and she began to spend more time alone with him in his classroom, the documents said.

This led to her sitting on his lap. Then they began to see each other before and after school every day, which then progressed to kissing and groping, and eventually oral sexual intercourse around 20 times in his classroom, the documents state. According to the documents, SC said this progressed for a short while into ninth grade when she began high school, but she does not remember if sexual assaults occurred then.

The documents state that when SC was a senior in high school, she revealed the sexual relationship to a Communities in Schools mentor during a meeting. The mentor then reported the disclosure to her boss, who in turn reported it to the Federal Way Public Schools administration. This report is what led to Watkins’ criminal charges.

According to documents, KK was a student at Totem Middle School from 2010 to 2013, in sixth through eighth grade, and she met Watkins during her seventh-grade year, when Watkins was her math teacher. Watkins would call KK inappropriate names, and then during private tutoring sessions, touch her shoulders, smell and play with her hair, fondle her breasts and squeeze her legs.

Documents state that these contacts occurred multiple times despite KK asking them to stop. In response, Watkins threatened to hit her with a piece of wood that he kept in his classroom if she told anyone about what had occurred.