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Privacy Lawsuit Over Prof's Book That Mentions Former TA's Childhood Sexual Abuse Can Go Forward

An "endarkened feminist approach to revolutionizing teacher consciousness" is alleged to be unprivacied as well.

Eugene Volokh | 9.23.2026 8:33 AM

From Judge Mary Kay Costello (E.D. Pa.) Friday in McCausland v. Penn. State Univ.:

Plaintiff Jonathan McCausland is a former graduate student and teaching assistant ("TA") at Penn State University …. In 2024, Jeanine Staples-Dixon, a tenured professor at Penn State, published a book that disclosed Plaintiff's childhood sexual abuse….

The facts, as alleged by plaintiff:

In 2018, Plaintiff began working as a TA for Professor Staples-Dixon's Philadelphia Urban Seminar at Penn State. This yearly seminar was held in the summer for a small number of students. As part of the course, Staples-Dixon instructed her TAs to share their "gender stories." She explained that extreme vulnerability "was an essential part of the pedagogical value of the seminar," and she wanted her TAs to model that vulnerability for her students.

To facilitate open and honest communication among seminar participants, every student was required to complete several intake forms pertaining to confidentiality. The forms stated that all information shared in class would be confidential, would not be shared outside the classroom without permission, and would be anonymized in the event of publication. Neither Staples-Dixon nor the TAs signed the confidentiality forms.

During the summer 2018 seminar, Plaintiff shared a gender story relating to how competition and athletics shaped his ideas of masculinity. However, Plaintiff felt that this story was "insufficiently vulnerable when compared to the highly personal gender stories share by other" TAs. During a planning session for the 2019 seminar, Plaintiff shared with Staples-Dixon that he had been sexually abused as a child by older boys who lived in his neighborhood. Staples-Dixon encouraged Plaintiff to share his story with seminar participants because it revealed the exact kind of extreme vulnerability that she wanted to discuss in the course.

Trusting the norms of confidentiality in the seminar and the agreements signed by every student, Plaintiff agreed. With Staples-Dixon's encouragement, Plaintiff continued to share his sexual abuse with seminar participants during the 2020, 2021, and 2022 sessions. Plaintiff graduated from Penn State in 2022.

In December 2024, Staples-Dixon published "Extraordinary Pedagogies: An Endarkened Feminist Approach to Revolutionizing Teacher Consciousness" through Teachers College Press. She based the book on the research she conducted during the seminar. The book included the following passage recounting Plaintiff's sexual abuse:

Dr. JD McCausland talked about the sexual molestation........

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