Pasadena district must pay former pupil $26 million

Girl, 11, with special needs was assaulted by three classmates.

Pasadena Unified School District officials were found negligent by a jury and ordered 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 court records. She and a group of classmates at Focus Point Academy 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 criticized Pasadena Unified and its attorneys, saying the school district continued to deny not just that it 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, said in the statement.

Hilda Ramirez Horvath, a spokesperson for the school district, declined to comment on the jury’s 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 that school officials were required to provide “constant monitoring” to the victim and the three students who attacked her.

Despite that, according to the complaint, a teacher with eight boys and a girl assigned to her class was on break when the assault occurred.

Attorneys for the girl also said employees at Focus Point Academy were inadequately trained and understaffed to handle the number of children 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 that teachers were constantly supervising “emotionally volatile students” and were sometimes required to leave students unsupervised to deal with “pressing emergencies.”

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 that the attack occurred, according to court filings, near a fence and bushes at the school.

Attorneys for the district said employees had not been negligent and returned immediately to the children.

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.