A lawsuit involving sexual abuse allegations against Michael Alstad, the director of the North Battleford City Kinsmen Band, was settled in the US for $2 million. (Facebook)

By Josh Ryan

Lawsuit settled

Sexual abuse case involving Battlefords band director settled

Dec 8, 2020 | 7:00 PM

The band director of the North Battleford City Kinsmen Band (NBCK,) Michael Alstad, and the plaintiff, have settled a sexual abuse lawsuit stemming from the late 1980s and early 1990s in the State of Washington.

47 year-old Maria Joyner was awarded $2 million in her lawsuit against her former school band teacher Alstad and the Aberdeen School District No.5 in Washington state. The matter was settled Dec.4 as a compromise of disputed claims and to avoid the cost and risk of ongoing litigation.

Alstad had worked as the director for the NBCK Band from 1992-1999, then spent time in the US, before returning to the Battlefords in 2018. He is listed as the current band director on their website.

Admissions

In Snohomish County Superior Court documents provided to battlefordsNOW, Alstad confessed to engaging in sexual encounters with Joyner several times a week in his home, on band trips and on the school campus throughout Joyner’s time as a student at Aberdeen High School in Washington State. He said this began in the fall of 1989 on a band trip to Spokane, Washington, continuing until her parents confronted them in January of 1990. About a month later, Alstad said the encounters had picked up again and continued until the summer of 1992. He had worked as a band director in the district from 1986 to 1991 prior to his time in the Battlefords.

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During his interrogation, Alstad was asked to explain the process he undertook in grooming Joyner for sexual contact. While an objection was raised to the term ‘grooming’, he said “I fell in love with [the] Plaintiff and believe she fell in love with me. We treated each other as lovers. I recognize, of course, that I should not have acted on my love for her, and I deeply regret that I did act on it.”

When asked to identify any other student or former student that he taught and had any sexual contact with, Alstad declined. He said “assuming for sake of argument” that if there were such a student, any involvement with this case could cause that student’s life to “be badly disrupted” and he would “rather suffer whatever penalties the court might impose” than answer that question.

The Aberdeen School District No. 5 in Washington admitted to some of Joyner’s allegations, while disputing others.

battlefordsNOW contacted defense attorney in Seattle, David Marshall, who provided a statement on behalf of Alstad.

“When I was a young high school teacher, I made a serious mistake. I deeply regret it. I hope this settlement will help Ms. Joyner,” the statement read.

Former student wanting closure, awareness

In a statement provided by Joyner’s lawyers to battlefordsNOW, Joyner said she is going public not only for her own need to heal, but to bring attention to “the tremendous injustice that happens to students when a teacher takes advantage of them like this and a district does not respond.

“I can no longer stay silent about the profound trauma this man has inflicted on me and his other victims,” she said. “I hope this can empower other victims to come forward and call out those who have abused their positions of power over them.”

In 2007, Joyner filed a complaint with the superintendent of the Washington State Office of Public Instruction, which resulted in Alstad’s termination from his position in Port Townsend, Washington. However, after this, she found that he had moved to Canada and continued to teach, where he has a Canadian teachers certificate, which her legal team stated contributed to the decision to go public at this time.

Joyner’s attorney, Darrell Cochran, told battlefordsNOW this was a very good result for a client who has been grieving for many years.

“She wants to make sure she does more than just receive compensation, she wants to make sure that she has an opportunity to protect others from what she went through,” Cochran said.

In regards to spreading the word of the case after the settlement, Cochran said the primary concern is getting school districts to not only take care of danger to students, but also candidly provide information to prevent abusive faculty from getting into similar positions down the line.

“We find all too often that school districts may do the right thing in terms of firing an employee like Alstad from their own district, but then stay quiet about his potential danger to other districts,” Cochran said. “Whether that means notifying the police or notifying administrators about the potential danger, this has to change.”

Currently, Alstad’s LinkedIn page still has him listed as the GM and Music Director of the NBCK Band, as well as the Director of the Around the Sound Community Band and the Executive Director of Music Center of the Northwest.

battlefordsNOW reached out for comment to the NBCK Band, Living Sky School Division (LSSD) and Light of Christ Catholic School Division.

In an email, LSSD stated that Michael Alstad has never been employed by the division. The other parties did not immediately respond.

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports