Man Was Sexually Abused As Teen By LAUSD Art Teacher's Aide: Lawsuit

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles Unified is being sued by a 39-year-old man who alleges a female teacher's aide sexually abused him when he was 13 and a student at a Woodland Hills middle school.

The plaintiff is identified only as John Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed Wednesday. An LAUSD representative said the district does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.

According to Doe's suit, he attended Francis Parkman Middle School and during the summer of 2000, before beginning his eighth grade year, he went to the beach with a group of students from his school. A teacher's assistant who was then in her mid-20s also attended the beach event, told Doe that he looked attractive and complimented him on his apparel and hair, the suit alleges.

"This was the start of (the aide's) process of grooming and conditioning plaintiff with the ultimate intent of sexually abusing him," the suit states.

As the fall semester started the alleged abuser was the teaching aide for Doe's eighth grade art class and she began giving him special attention and flirted with him, the suit states. The assistant asked Doe to come to the art classroom before the school day began and gave him coffee and food, actions that the art teacher knew about, according to the suit.

The assistant also took Doe to locations outside school to buy him food and asked him about his personal life while sharing information about hers, the suit states.

The aide "manipulated plaintiff into believing they were in a relationship together," the suit further states. During a subsequent visit to the Getty Center with other students, the assistant asked the boy about his sex life and whether he would like to have sex with her, the suit further alleges. The assistant then took Doe to a hotel and sexually abused him for the first time, according to the suit.

The assistant continued to molest the plaintiff during his eighth grade school year until he graduated in 2001, according to the suit, which further states that the art teacher and other LAUSD employees knew or should have known what was going on between the boy and the aide, yet never reported the alleged misconduct.

City News Service