A lawsuit was filed against Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on behalf of a 14-year-old girl who alleges she was sexually assaulted by boys on campus and that the school principal told a female companion who sought help that she was too busy to help because she was headed to a meeting.
Stacey Anderson, the legal guardian for the unnamed girl, filed the case Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging negligence and violation of the state Education Code. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
An LAUSD spokesman said Tuesday he would check to see if any comment would be made on behalf of the district.
The suit states that the girl, then 13, was walking on campus at Samuel Gompers Middle School with two female companions on April 22, 2014, when a group of boys emerged from a gym, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the boys’ locker room.
According to the lawsuit, the “plaintiff screamed for help …while she was thereafter sexually assaulted.”
The suit also alleges an employee of the district heard the victim’s screams, but did not immediately come to her aid.
One of the victim’s female companions went for help and told the principal, Stacy Gholar, her friend was being sexually abused and pleaded for help.
Gholar allegedly replied, “I’m late to a meeting and I don’t have time to help you.”
The girl’s assailants ran when they heard someone’s voice approaching and the plaintiff fled to her classroom “in shock and crying,” where her teacher sent her to the school office, the suit states.
No school employee called for any medical assistance for the girl and she was eventually taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood by her mother after she arrived on campus, the suit states.
