Principal involved in viral homecoming photos also named in 2019 lawsuit

HAZARD, Ky. (Lexington Herald-Leader/WYMT) - The principal at the center of viral photos showing students dancing near school officials in women’s underwear was also named in a lawsuit filed in 2019, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Hazard High School Principal and Hazard Mayor Donald “Happy” Mobelini was accused, along with two Hazard High School teachers, of not properly chaperoning a school trip in which one student alleges she was raped by another student.

The student alleges in the lawsuit that when she was a junior in 2017, Mobelini and two teachers did not check on students at various points during the trip. The lawsuit also alleges that the students drank alcohol and that one student, a boy, physically and sexually assaulted another student, a girl.

That former student claims that the chaperones did not handle the investigation into her allegations properly.

Mobelini and the other chaperones have asked that the lawsuit be dismissed.

Attorneys for both sides in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to the newspaper’s request for comment on Wednesday.

According to court records, a jury trial is scheduled for August 2022.

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