Personal Injury Blog

Three Los Angeles students will receive a sum of $1.6 million in a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District.  The settlement and the sexual assault case that preceded it relate to the abuse of the three girls, who were aged between 5 and 7 at the time, by an employee at their school.  According to the Los Angeles Times, the incidents occurred between 2002 and 2003.  The employee, Ricardo Guevara, was found guilty of molestation, and sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2005.  The girl’s parents brought a lawsuit against the school district, and now, a Los Angeles County Superior Court has awarded the girls $1.6 million in damages.

This is only the most recent in a long line of sexual abuse scandals that have plagued the school district in recent years. Earlier this year, former school assistant principal Steve Thomas Rooney, was charged on 13 counts of felony sex-related counts.  In that case, the school district was alleged to have transferred Rooney from his older school, where he was under investigation by police in a sexual abuse case, and assigned him to the Markham Middle School, where the new abuse took place.

The district obviously hasn’t learned from its mistakes. Guevara had been accused of molesting another child at the same school in 2002.  There had also been another such incident earlier in 1995.  The district seems to have turned a blind eye to these sexual assaults happening right under its nose.

The growing number of sexual assault cases at the Los Angeles Unified School District is drawing comparisons with the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.  In fact, some commentators have pointed out that there seems to be some reluctance to act against these kinds of sexual abuses that are perpetrated by educators, in contrast to the sharp condemnation from all quarters in the clergy abuse scandal.

Teachers are probably next only to the clergy in the kind of trust they inspire, and it seems like at Los Angeles Unified, there have been one too many cases of educators abusing their positions.  Even more shocking than the fact that the school district brushed Guevara’s earlier sexual abuses under the carpet (although it was aware of these), is the reaction to the settlement that has now been announced. According to the statement issued by the district, it accepted that it held responsibility in what happened to the girls, but believed that the damages were in excess of the reasonable amount of compensation deserved by the victims for their suffering.   This begs the question – what exactly would they believe is a fair compensation for the suffering of three innocent girls?

The district seems to be disappointingly out of touch with the welfare of students. That much is obvious from this statement.  Almost every piece of research into child sex abuse points out to the long-lasting effects of the abuse, and the impact it has on the rest of the victim’s life.  For the district to be so blasé about the suffering of its own students is shameful.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.