School district should stop blaming children in sexual abuse cases

Victim blaming shouldn’t be a lesson taught by the Palm Beach County School District.

Yet the district has routinely defended itself against student sexual abuse lawsuits partly by blaming the children — some as young as 6.

In at least five sex-abuse lawsuits, the district said the students shared some responsibility, the Sun Sentinel’s Scott Travis reported in a Sunday article.

Lawyers call it a routine legal maneuver to protect taxpayers, but School Board members should know better than to save money by pointing the finger at victimized children.

Sex-abuse cases shouldn’t be treated like slip-and-falls or fender-benders, cases where this type of legal argument is often used.

When a child has been sexually abused, it’s never their fault.

Besides, these lawsuits don’t come out of nowhere. Presumably, the district has investigated what happened. If that investigation supports a student’s claim of being victimized at school, its lawyers should seek a fair and reasonable settlement without putting that child through the wringer.

The district’s questionable legal tactic surfaced in advance of a Wednesday vote on one of its largest-ever settlements — $3.6 million to four women who as 9- and 10-year-olds said they were sexually abused by a teacher at Coral Sunset Elementary near Boca Raton.

One said a teacher, Blake Sinrod, touched her under her clothing and told her to touch his private area over his clothing, according to a police report. The other girls, all thirdgraders, shared similar experiences, according to police.

The police believed Sinrod abused all four girls. He ultimately pleaded guilty to abusing two.

But in its lawsuit defense, the district’s lawyers said the girls were “old enough to appreciate the consequences of their actions” and had “conducted themselves in a careless and negligent manner.”

Can you imagine how seeing those words would make the students — and their parents — feel? No wonder the district couldn’t settle for less than close to $4 million.

This tactic has been used before, too. According to Travis’ report:

The district argued that a 7-year-old boy with autism showed negligence because he was slow to report claims in 2015 that two classmates forced him into sex acts at Addison Mizner Elementary in Boca Raton. The district settled the case for $185,000.

The district argued that a seventh grader was partly responsible for not quickly reporting that a Jupiter Middle School teacher had given him foot massages and touched himself inappropriately from 2010 to 2012. The district settled the case for $250,000.

The district questioned the allegations of a 14-year-old girl who said she went to a bathroom at Seminole Ridge High School in 2012 and was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old student. The district settled the case for $250,000.

After a 6-year-old girl said in 2013 that a boy pulled down her pants and sexually assaulted her, the district argued that the girl “conducted herself in a careless and negligent manner” and was “old enough to appreciate the consequences of her own actions.” The family dropped the lawsuit. The tactic, called “comparative negligence” or “contributory fault,” seeks to share responsibility for what happened. The district’s legal team says it’s a common defense, not meant to lay blame, but to reduce the damages the district might have to pay.

Common defense strategies aside, it’s wrong to tell sex-abuse victims they share the blame for what happened because they failed to say something sooner.

The district’s legal team reports directly to board members, so they can’t claim ignorance of the arguments made by their outside attorneys. Long ago, they should have made clear that sex-abuse cases should be treated differently.

Board members can send that message at Wednesday’s settlement vote. Several already have said they support banning a blame-the-victim legal defense.

“The Board, with its attorneys, must consider all legal defenses on a case by case basis, however, this current School Board has never taken the position that a child could be implicit in their own child abuse,” the district said in a statement.

Taking responsibility for your actions is a lesson we should learn by the time we finish kindergarten.

Palm Beach County School District officials should finally pass that test.