Lawsuit: Principal Was Too Busy To Help Girl Who Was Being Sexually Assaulted
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A lawsuit filed against Los Angeles Unified School District alleges a school principal disregarded a report that a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by boys on campus because she was too busy going to a meeting.
Stacey Anderson, the legal guardian of 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.
According to the lawsuit, the girl, then 13, was walking on campus at Samuel Gompers Middle School in South Los Angeles with two female companions about 2 p.m. April 22, 2014, when a group of boys came out of the gym, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the boys' locker room.
"Plaintiff screamed for help ... while she was thereafter sexually assaulted," according to the lawsuit.
An employee of the district heard her screams, but did not immediately come to her aid, the suit alleges.
Meanwhile, one of the girl's friends went for help and met the principal, Stacy Gholar, the suit states, although the LAUSD's website lists the principal as Traci Gholar. The girl's companion told Gholar her friend was being sexually abused and pleaded for the principal to help her friend, the suit states.
But Gholar replied, "I'm late to a meeting and I don't have time to help you," according to the lawsuit.
The girl's assailants ran when they heard someone's voice and the plaintiff fled to her classroom "in shock and crying," where her teacher told her to go 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 the woman arrived on campus, the suit states.
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