A judge has dismissed Los Angeles Unified as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged she was sexually abused as a minor nearly 60 years ago by an elementary school teacher.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gail Killefer granted the LAUSD's motion to toss the two negligence causes of action brought against the district in woman's suit. The plaintiff alleged she was molested by the teacher when she was 11 or 12 years old in 1967-68 while attending Santa Barbara Avenue Elementary School, which is now known as Martin Luther King Elementary School.
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Killifer wrote in her decision that the plaintiff failed to show that the district was negligent in supervising the plaintiff or the teacher. The judge also found that there was no evidence that any supervisor or administrator knew about any alleged danger posed by the teacher.
In her suit brought in July 2022 against the district and multiple "Doe" defendants, the plaintiff alleged the teacher touched her private parts, rubbed his own private parts against her and squeezed her shoulders. The suit does not state the subject the teacher taught.
Another teacher saw the plaintiff and the teacher in his classroom after school with the door locked and the lights turned off, according to the plaintiff's court papers, which further stated that rumors circulated at the school that the teacher was "creepy" and a "weirdo."
The suit further alleged that the LAUSD knew or should have known that her alleged abuser "had a propensity to engage in the sexual abuse or assault of children" and that it was foreseeable that the teacher was "unfit, dangerous and a threat to the health, safety and welfare" of the school's students.
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