V vs School District

The parents of a young boy called us because of a concern that their child had been attacked in the bathroom at his public elementary school on several occasions by the same older, bigger boy. We obtained the juvenile records of the older boy and learned that he had a history of doing similar things in another school out of state and that the records from that out of state school had been sitting on the desk of the school psychologist of the local school here for months without being read.

We had our client's young son sent to a psychiatrist that specializes in childhood sexual abuse. A special evaluation using dolls and videotape was done. The expert was convinced that the child had been attacked and was suffering from the psychological effects of both the attack and the lack of support by the school staff.

The school district refused to settle. At trial the school district attorney suggested in a subtle way that this had been consensual play between two children who were perhaps homosexual. The jury awarded the highest verdict against the school district for sexual attack in the history of California. Afterwards, the school district instituted new policies to patrol bathrooms and started using a buddy system.