A Colorado Springs-based charter school is not liable for the sexual assault of a child by one of its instructors, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

Kaitlyn Day, now 23, had accused The Career Building Academy and two of its executives, Richard N. Johnson and Joy Morales Cress, of negligence and of violating the federal law known as Title IX that prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex. U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore acknowledged Day was a victim, but determined the school officials were not on notice that her abuse was occurring.

“Ms. Day was wronged, that much everyone agrees. But the claims Ms. Day made for the remedies she seeks are not supported by the evidence,” Moore wrote in a September 20 order following a trial in August before the judge.

The key factor to Moore’s decision was testimony from a television host who was living at the academy’s Walsenburg campus to document a construction project. Moore did not believe Kayleen McCabe’s assertions that she witnessed and told Johnson and Morales Cress of the abuse.

That finding shocked McCabe, who insisted to Colorado Politics that the academy knew one of its employees was preying on Day.

“Wow. I know the truth. I was there. I saw what happened,” she said. “It was so disturbing. To tell the truth and not have the judge believe you is preposterous.”

According to the facts as Moore saw them, Day was an “at-risk” student when she enrolled at the academy through her home school district of Peyton School District 23-JT. On May 2, 2015, she began attending the academy’s Walsenburg campus. The vocation-oriented facility had a culinary program, construction program and classroom training, and out-of-town students stayed in a dormitory.

When Day was 16, in 2015, instructor Robert Wilkerson began a sexual relationship with her. He was 39 years old. Around that same time, the academy began a project to help construct a home for veterans and their families.

McCabe, who was the host of the DIY Network’s “Rescue Renovation,” met with Johnson in 2015 about documenting and filming the project. She and her production crew moved onto the Walsenburg campus on the day the project kicked off, which also happened to be when Day began attending the academy.

McCabe testified that she saw Wilkerson grooming Day – favoring her over other female students, making comments about her breasts and having Day sit in his lap. McCabe also said Wilkerson flirted with her and turned the camera in the dormitory toward McCabe’s door.

On May 17, McCabe called a meeting to talk about the project’s numerous problems. Among the attendees were Johnson and Morales Cress. During a break, McCabe testified, she took them aside and voiced her concerns about Wilkerson. She told them that either Wilkerson had to go or she would sever ties with the project, and Johnson reportedly declined to fire Wilkerson.

McCabe then exited the project.

However, Moore found her account lacking in credibility. In his narrative, he described her shifting story about the date of the meeting and noted inconsistencies about when she said she witnessed Wilkerson’s behavior.

“The Court finds that while Ms. McCabe knew about Mr. Wilkerson’s conduct, she did not tell Mr. Johnson or Ms. Cress,” the judge said.

He determined, in effect, that she lied about the meeting, and accused her of pulling out of the project because it was disorganized and she only wanted to protect her reputation.

McCabe retorted on Wednesday that she had no motivation to misrepresent what she knew for nearly seven years.

“I just don’t want them abusing any more students. They failed her so greatly,” McCabe said. “Justice has totally failed her.”

Day also believed the school knew what was happening to her at the time, and that the administrators could have reviewed the camera footage.

“It’s honestly sad that they still get to be trusted with other people’s children,” she told Colorado Politics. “That was the whole point: to save at-risk kids. I’m still screwed up from it.”

The academy did not return a phone or Facebook message. The number listed for its Walsenburg campus has been disconnected.

Day said she would not pursue her claims further in state court and take advantage of a law enacted this year that opened a three-year window for survivors of child sex abuse since 1960 to bring lawsuits against institutions that harbored perpetrators.

Moore acknowledged that Colorado Springs police arrested Wilkerson for sexual assault on a minor in April 2016. By that time he had resigned from Walsenburg but had been rehired at the academy’s Salida campus. It was only then that Johnson and Morales Cress learned about his sexual assault of Day. Wilkerson pleaded guilty later that year to a felony and is registered as a sex offender.

Moore sided with the school on Day’s Title IX and negligence claims, finding Johnson and Morales Cress did not know about Wilkerson’s predatory behavior, nor would they be liable under the law even if the charter school had received federal funding.

“If Ms. McCabe told Ms. Cress and Mr. Johnson what she knew about Mr. Wilkerson, instead of abandoning the Veteran’s Project without a word, maybe there would have been a remedy for the wrong Ms. Day has suffered. But the Court finds Ms. McCabe did not do so,” Moore concluded.

The case is Day v. The Career Building Academy et al.