Pasadena Unified ordered to pay $26 million to special-needs girl who was sexually assaulted
Pasadena Unified School District officials were found negligent and ordered this week to pay $26 million to a former special-needs student who was sexually assaulted by three classmates.
The attack happened on May 17, 2016, when the female student was 11 years old, according to the complaint. She and a group of her classmates at Focus Point Academy in Altadena were briefly left unsupervised outside their classroom when, according to court records, three classmates sexually assaulted her after one of the boys said, “It’s rape time.”
In a statement, the victim’s attorneys blasted the school district and its attorneys, saying the school district continued to deny not just that the district had been negligent, but that the attack had even occurred.
“This verdict demonstrates that all children, regardless of their disabilities, deserve to be protected,” David Rudorfer, an attorney representing the victim with the firm Panish Shea Boyle Ravipudi, said in the statement.
Moises Murillo died in 2017 after he fell out of a chair and severed his spinal cord. He was taken out of an adaptive stroller he was supposed to be in.
Hilda Ramirez Horvath, a spokesperson for the school district, declined to comment on the verdict.
“It’s not appropriate to comment on pending litigation,” she said.
According to the original complaint against the school district, attorneys for the victim, now 17, alleged school officials were required to provide “constant monitoring” to the victim and the three students who attacked her.
Despite this, according to the complaint, a teacher with eight boys and a girl assigned to her class was on break when the assault occurred.
A San Luis Obispo County school district has agreed to pay a 9-year-old student $10 million to settle a lawsuit.
Attorneys for the girl also said staff at Focus Point was inadequately trained and understaffed to handle the number of children there with behavior-related disabilities.
According to court records, attorneys for the school district argued that the plaintiff had not proved that teachers and other school employees had been negligent or violated school policies during the incident.
District employees, they said, “could not have anticipated such an event would occur.”
Attorneys for the district also said in court documents teachers were constantly supervising “emotionally volatile students” and were sometimes required to leave students unsupervised to deal with “pressing emergencies.”
Pasadena’s mayor issued a strong rebuke of Principal Rudy Ramirez, saying his ‘derogatory racial remarks’ were ‘not factual and were inflammatory.’
On the day of the attack, according to court filings, the teacher ushered students out of the classroom because another student was “having a meltdown and needed to be de-escalated.”
It was then the attack occurred, near a fence and bushes of the school, according to court filings.
Attorneys for the district said employees had not been negligent and would return immediately to the kids.
A jury on Tuesday disagreed. The jury ordered the district to pay $12.5 million to the former student for past pain and suffering and $13.5 million for future pain and suffering.
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