Portland Public Schools is asking a court to dismiss a recent lawsuit that argued the district was liable for a 2021 incident in which an educational technician sexually exploited a 7-year-old student with special needs.

The suit — filed on behalf of the student, now 11, and her mother — was first submitted in state court in mid-June, before an attorney for the district and its then-superintendent asked to have it moved to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine last week.

Five years ago, Ocean Avenue Elementary School ed tech Benjamin Conroy, then 32, was arrested on multiple sex charges after a person reported receiving images through a dating app of a man sexually abusing a child. Police say Conroy recorded and posted a cellphone video showing him sexually abusing a student.

Conroy eventually pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison, but died in a New Jersey correctional facility in 2024.

He had been hired to work in a special program for students with special needs, and the student he abused had autism and was nonverbal. The lawsuit says that program was critically understaffed, that the district and superintendent ignored that issue, and that Conroy was hired without a thorough background check or review of his references.

The suit also said colleagues noticed Conroy exhibiting strange behavior but did not report it, and that school leaders should never have allowed Conroy to be in a one-on-one situation with the student. The student’s mother said the child experienced emotional distress because of the incident.

The family is asking for monetary damages, “in such amount as will appropriately discourage any future instances of similar conduct by Defendants or other public school institutions.”

Portland filed the motion to dismiss Tuesday, writing that while the events that occurred are tragic, the student and mother have failed to make any claims against the district or the superintendent that are eligible for relief through the court.

The motion argues that to sue under the Maine Human Rights Act, the state’s antidiscrimination law, the family should have first filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission. That didn’t happen within the two-year timeline outlined in statute. The school’s motion also argues that the mother is not eligible to sue for emotional distress because she did not actually witness the harm to her child.

It further argues that a school district cannot be held legally responsible for its employees’ actions, and that the lawsuit hasn’t shown that school district policies in some way caused the sexual assault.

Even if the district did not conduct a meaningful background check on Conroy during the hiring process, the motion says, the plaintiffs haven’t proven that his eventual criminal conduct would have been a “plainly obvious consequence” of hiring him.

An attorney for the family did not comment on the motion Wednesday, but said earlier in the week that he was evaluating whether to request that the case be moved back to state court. A response to the motion is due July 28, after which a judge will issue a ruling on whether the case should continue.