A Calabasas teenager and her family are suing the Las Virgenes Unified School District, alleging that the teen was bullied and harassed after nude photos of her were circulated throughout Calabasas High School.
The now 17-year-old said during a press conference that a student she thought was a friend snapped pictures of her in the shower and then spread them all over campus.
What followed, she said, was severe harassment and bullying.
“I was called a liar, a manipulator,” she said. “People told me what I experienced wasn't real, and people who saw the pictures laughed at me.”
Her mother said the district failed to protect her daughter.
“They constantly allowed her to be harassed,” she said. “This is the hard part, so she has always been a straight-A student, loved school, involved in sports. After this happened, she had to miss so much school due to fear and being temporarily removed. Her grades dropped. I was struggling. Nobody ever acknowledged us or even attempted to try to find a solution to make my daughter feel safe.”
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The mother also called out Superintendent Dr. Daniel Stepenosky for the way he handled the situation,
“Daniel Stepenosky retaliated against the student for speaking up while child pornography circulated under his watch, and I believe that it's not just failure, that it's negligence,” she said. “The only time that the situation was acknowledged was when Daniel Stepenosky illegally removed my 15-year-old daughter and my seven-year-old son from the district after bringing light to this situation.”
The teen added that she believes she would’ve been taken seriously if she were white.
“Coming from a school that has no black staff, a handful of African American or multiracial children, most definitely it would have been taken seriously,” she said.
She said she’s now at a better school and has better friends.
The Las Virgenes School District sent KNX News 97.1 FM the following statement:
“Student safety is our number one priority. When the allegations of off-campus conduct were brought to our administration’s attention, we immediately reported the matter to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. LASD took the matter seriously and assigned it to the Special Victims Unit, which conducted a full investigation.”
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