Law & Courts News in Brief

L.A. to Pay $88 Million to Settle Sex-Abuse Cases

By Corey Mitchell — May 31, 2016 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The Los Angeles Unified district will pay $88 million to settle lawsuits over sex abuse by teachers involving dozens of children at two elementary schools.

The two settlements, $58 million for 37 plaintiffs at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary School and $30 million for 10 plaintiffs at Telfair Avenue Elementary School, are among the largest in district history after the Miramonte sex-abuse case that brought a $139 million settlement.

The two teachers at the center of the cases are serving long prison terms after pleading no contest to molestation charges.

The lawsuits alleged that the district didn’t take seriously the initial complaints of teachers’ misbehavior.

A version of this article appeared in the June 01, 2016 edition of Education Week as L.A. to Pay $88 Million to Settle Sex-Abuse Cases

Events

School Climate & Safety K-12 Essentials Forum Strengthen Students’ Connections to School
Join this free event to learn how schools are creating the space for students to form strong bonds with each other and trusted adults.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Standards-Based Grading Roundtable: What We've Achieved and Where We're Headed
Content provided by Otus
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
Creating Confident Readers: Why Differentiated Instruction is Equitable Instruction
Join us as we break down how differentiated instruction can advance your school’s literacy and equity goals.
Content provided by Lexia Learning

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts U.S. Supreme Court Declines Bid to Rename 'Brown v. Board of Education'
Descendants argued that their case, not the one from Topeka, Kan., should have topped the 1954 decision on racial segregation in schools.
3 min read
Linda Brown Smith stands in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan., on May 8, 1964. The refusal of the public school to admit Brown in 1951, then nine years old, because she is black, led to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the "separate but equal" clause and mandated that schools nationwide must be desegregated.
Linda Brown Smith stands in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan., in 1964, a segregated white school where she had been denied enrollment in 1951, leading to the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the "separate but equal" doctrine in the case that bears her family name, <i>Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.</i> The high court on Jan. 8 turned away an effort by descendants of the litigants in a companion desegregation case from South Carolina to rename the historic decision for their case, <i>Briggs</i> v. <i>Elliott</i>.
AP
Law & Courts Court Backs Race-Neutral Criteria in Selective K-12 Schools
In a case involving Boston's "exam schools," the 1st Circuit said even admissions plans with a goal of boosting racial diversity pass muster.
4 min read
People protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington on June 29, 2023. The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
People demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, the day the court struck down affirmative action in college admissions. A new federal appeals court ruling says that race-neutral criteria for Boston's selective high schools is consistent with the high court's ruling.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Law & Courts Producers of Toxic Chemicals in Schools Owe Hundreds of Millions in Damages, Jury Says
Bayer, the company that owns Monsanto, owes more than $850 million to parents and children who suffered prolonged PCB exposure.
3 min read
In this Jan. 4, 2019 photo, workers and other officials gather outside the Sky Valley Education Center school in Monroe, Wash., before going inside to collect samples for testing. The samples were tested for PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as dioxins and furans. A lawsuit filed on behalf of several families and teachers claims that officials failed to adequately respond to PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, in the school.
In this Jan. 4, 2019 photo, workers and other officials gather outside the Sky Valley Education Center school in Monroe, Wash., before going inside to collect samples for testing. The samples were tested for PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as dioxins and furans. A jury this week ordered Bayer, the company that owns the manufacturer of PCBs, to pay $857 million to families affected by PCB exposure at Sky Valley.
Ted S. Warren/AP
Law & Courts Florida Teachers Sue Over State Law Restricting Their Pronoun Use
The teachers seek to overturn the measure, which prohibits them from using gender-neutral honorifics or pronouns that don't match their sex at birth.
5 min read
Santaluces High School teacher Michael Woods stands in front of his school sign in Lantana, Fla., wearing his protest shirt "We Are All Human" in opposition to recent book bans by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 24, 2023. DeSantis is touting a series of measures he has pushed that have led to an upswing in banned or restricted books — not just in Florida schools but in an increasing number of other conservative states.
Santaluces High School teacher Michael Woods, standing in front of his school in Lantana, Fla., on May 24, 2023, wears a protest shirt in the colors of the pride and transgender flags. Now, Florida is being sued over a law prohibiting teachers from using pronouns that don't align with their sex at birth.
Jim Rassol/AP