LOS ANGELES, CA — A woman is suing Los Angeles Unified, alleging she was sexually molested by an alleged “serial sexual predator” when she was 8 years old by a teacher at a South Los Angeles school 20 years ago.
The plaintiff is identified only as Jane Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that alleges sexual battery, battery, civil rights violations, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She seeks unspecified damages in the suit brought Wednesday.
An LAUSD representative said Thursday that the district does not comment on pending litigation.
According to Doe’s complaint, the teacher inappropriately touched her private area over her clothes many times in his classroom at West Vernon Elementary School. The suit identifies the teacher only as “Mr. Sanchez” and describes him as “openly touchy and handsy with female students” and gave them tight hugs in front of everyone from other students to school administrators.
The teacher eventually obtained the description of “creepy” when it came to his dealings with female students at the South Grand Avenue school, the suit states.
Doe believes that the teacher was a “serial sexual predator” who sexually assaulted and abused Doe and other students, the suit states. Although the district’s employees allegedly knew or should have known of the teacher’s alleged misconduct, he was not properly supervised, according to the complaint.
“This (alleged poor oversight) allowed an environment of no oversight or supervision that made it conducive to molest, abuse and harass school students, including plaintiff,” according to the suit, which further states that the lack of an investigation and the decision to allow the teacher to continue working enabled him to continue molesting female students.
Doe still suffers “severe and permanent psychological, emotional and physical injuries, shame, humiliation” and from the “inability to lead a normal life,” the suit states.
City News Service