A 27-year-old woman is suing Los Angeles Unified, alleging she was sexually molested by a biology teacher in his classroom and in a storage room when she attended Esteban Torres High School about a decade ago.
The plaintiff in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit is identified only as Jane Doe. Her allegations include sexual abuse of a minor, intentional infliction of emotional distress, sexual assault and battery and negligent hiring, supervision and retention of an unfit employee. Doe seeks unspecified damages.
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Teacher Salvador Cano, a co-defendant in the suit with the district, knew that Doe had special susceptibility to emotional distress due to her young age, the suit alleges.
Doe "did not consent to this sexually offensive contact by Cano, nor did she welcome it," the suit brought July 29states.
An LAUSD representative issued a statement Monday regarding the suit.
"Los Angeles Unified takes the safety and security of all students very seriously," the statement read. "The district is looking into these claims. However, Los Angeles Unified does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation."
Doe enrolled as a junior at Torres High in the 2013-14 school year and the next year she was assigned to be a teaching assistant in Cano's biology class, the suit states. Cano, then 34, quickly became interested in Doe and started having small talk with her to begin his grooming of the plaintiff, the suit alleges.
Cano later escalated his conduct with personal compliments of Doe and by rubbing her shoulders, according to the suit, which further alleges the teacher obtained Doe's phone number by saying he wanted to text her from the coffee shop where he was buying the drink for her.
Starting with kissing the plaintiff, Cano began having inappropriate relations with Doe by December of her senior year, including in his classroom and in a lab storage room, the suit alleges.
Doe reported the alleged abuses in March 2018, according to the suit, which further states that Cano pleaded no contest to felony charges and was sentenced to two years in prison.
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