Update: The lawsuit filed by the two women against Zach Brown, Michael E. Discher and Linda B. Discher, who live in Byrnes Mill, and the Fox C-6 School District was dismissed on Nov. 5.
Zach Brown has resigned as Fox High School’s assistant principal after two women filed a lawsuit against him alleging he groomed them for sexual activities while they were students.
Board of Education members voted unanimously on March 28 to accept Brown’s resignation.
The plaintiffs are called Jane Doe and Mary Doe in the lawsuit, which the women filed on March 20 in the Jefferson County Circuit Court. They also are suing the Fox C-6 School District, claiming district officials did nothing to stop the alleged grooming.
In addition, the women are suing Michael E. Discher and Linda B. Discher who live in Byrnes Mill, because Brown reportedly met the women at the Dischers’ home for a pool party in July 2019.
The lawsuit alleges that the Dischers allowed the women to drink alcohol at the party despite one of them being too young at the time to legally drink alcohol.
The two women are seeking in excess of $25,000 each from Brown, the school district and the Dischers.
No lawyers are listed for Brown, Fox or the Dischers in court documents.
Brown did not return phone calls for comment, and the Dischers could not be reached for comment.
Fox officials said Brown started working in the district in August 2005 as a science teacher at Fox High School. He was named the school’s athletic director in July 2017 and then assistant principal in July 2019.
Brown was being paid a $105,543.07 salary this school year, and district officials said he will receive a prorated salary through March 28.
The lawsuit, which St. Louis lawyer Steven Andrew Trefts filed on behalf of the two women, says Jane Doe was born in 2001 and Mary Doe was born in 1998, and both attended Fox High.
According to the suit, Brown began to groom Mary Doe while he was her teacher by sharing inappropriate and intimate details of his personal and sexual life with her.
Brown also allegedly groomed Jane Doe, but the lawsuit does not say what his position at Fox High was at the time.
The lawsuit also says Brown and Mary Doe had a sexual relationship following her graduation from Fox High. It also says those sexual activities took place both on and off the Fox High grounds.