Lansing, Michigan school officials knew about fifth-grade teacher Patrick Daley’s wandering hands and complaints of inappropriate behavior for years before he was arrested in 2019 for criminal sexual conduct, according to a lawsuit.

A jury convicted Daley of 18 counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct last fall and he was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison last November, WILX reports.

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The case centered on eight boys the teacher molested while employed at Washington Woods School, but the recent lawsuit, filed on behalf of a then-10-year-old boy, alleges teachers, volunteers, staff and students made at least eight reports about his actions to the district between 2016 and 2018, according to the Lansing State Journal.

The lawsuit alleges administrators first approached Daley about his behavior with his young male students in 2015, when he was prohibited from changing in the boys’ locker room because of sexual misconduct complaints.

Those complaints included reports Daley put his hand on a boy’s buttocks, intentionally exposed his boxers to students, put his hand up the shirt of a student, liked to watch students changing in the locker room, and allegations of “flirty” antics with boys.

The lawsuit alleges Daley was forced out of Cole Academy in Lansing over sexual harassment complaints and took a job at Washington Woods in 2012, where he continued the behavior.

In January 2018, a paraprofessional emailed Washington Woods Principal Frank Sutterlin about Daley, which is detailed in the lawsuit.

“I witnessed behavior that made me uncomfortable and I am reporting it,” the staffer wrote. “Mr. Daley had his hand around a boy student and his hand went to his hip and then his buttock where it stayed. This happened in the computer lab around 11:50 and I verbally reported it to Matt and was asked to send email.

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“Within minutes Mr. Daley spoke to another student who was sitting and his hand went through the chair hole and on the student’s lower hip. I have witnessed a lot of hugging and touching from teacher to male students but today the view was different as I was in the computer lab.”

The former 10-year-old student who brought the lawsuit accused Daley of regularly fondling his buttocks, touching him under his shirt, rubbing his back, arms and hands and combing his fingers through his hair. Other victims accused Daley of putting them on his lap and touching their penis through their clothes, the State Journal reports.

The lawsuit alleges school officials did not investigate the allegations, contact parents of Daley’s victims, or contact police until May 2018.

“He used his innocent touching as a way to gain access and sexually abuse these eight children,” Ingham County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Christina Johnson said at Daley’s trial. “There is no question that these touchings were done for a sexual purpose … (Daley) had a propensity for sexually abusing children.”

And the Holt School District, according to the lawsuit, “took no meaningful step to stop Daley or protect (the unnamed student) and other vulnerable students.”