Trial is scheduled to begin Friday in a lawsuit alleging that California School for the Deaf-Riverside failed for more than two years to protect a “profoundly vulnerable” former student from sexual assaults by several classmates.
The alleged incidents included oral sex and intercourse between the plaintiff and five boys in 2022 and 2023, according to the lawsuit and other documents filed in the case. The sex occurred during and after school in bathrooms, a hallway inside the school’s gymnasium and the school’s Career and Technical Education building.
The negligence suit, filed in November 2023 in Riverside County Superior Court, also names as a defendant the California Department of Education, which operates the school through its State Special Schools and Services Division.
Founded in 1953, CSDR serves about 400 deaf and hard-of-hearing boys and girls in kindergarten through 12th grade from Bakersfield to the Mexican border. It is one of two such schools in the state, with its other campus in Fremont. Some of the students live in cottages on campus.
The lawsuit alleges the plaintiff, now 20, had “poor self-regulation issues” and engaged in dangerous/risky behavior, and that the defendants were aware she was “at risk” in the areas of social stress, self-esteem and executive functioning, among other things.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Education declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. But according to court filings, attorneys defending the state claim the sex was consensual and that the former student’s alleged assailants were either her boyfriends or she had been dating them at the time of the alleged incidents.
In motions filed with the court in September, the girl’s attorneys said she was no “ordinary high schooler.” Abandoned in a Philippine orphanage at birth, she weighed less than 2 pounds and suffered from severe jaundice, congenital encephalopathy and spinal tuberculosis, among other ailments. The orphanage did not recognize the girl was deaf until she was 14 months old.
The girl, according to court records, was later diagnosed with myriad neurological and developmental conditions, including epilepsy, autism spectrum disorder, cerebellar ataxia, oppositional defiant disorder and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.
“This case it not about a willful teenager sneaking away to engage in consensual trysts, as defendants would have this court believe. It is about the repeated sexual exploitation of a profoundly vulnerable child,” the motion states. The girl’s level of functioning while at CSDR was that of an impaired second or third grader, “placing her at extraordinary risk of sexual manipulation and abuse,” it states.
The plaintiff’s attorneys claim the school ignored repeated warnings and urgent pleas from the girl’s parents about the alleged sexual assaults. According to a filing, the school failed to follow its own policies and procedures and took no meaningful action to stop the misconduct. For example, the attorneys allege, no report was made to child protective services within 36 hours of the alleged sexual misconduct as required by school policy.
And while the record shows the California Highway Patrol was contacted on Sept. 28, 2022, about the sexual assault allegations, it did not indicate what the outcome was. The CHP would investigate criminal allegations because CSDR is a state school.
Attorneys for the state claim in their motion that the plaintiff’s attorneys did not allege in their lawsuit that the girl was “neurologically unable to understand the concept of consent,” or that she was “unable to control her desire to knowingly and voluntarily participate in sexual activity with other high school teenage male students her own age.”
The lawsuit claims CSDR has a history of inappropriate sexual activity involving students dating back more than a decade.
“Despite having full knowledge of the occurrence of said inappropriate sexual activity among students on campus, the school neglected to respond effectively or implement measures to address this serious issue, thus perpetuating an environment that allowed such misconduct to persist unchecked,” the lawsuit alleges.
Candice Klein, the lead attorney representing the former student in the current case, was one of the attorneys who sued CSDR, the Department of Education and a former student in July 2017, alleging the defendant roamed the campus, unsupervised, for three years, forcing other male students into oral and anal sex as part of a “sex club” he controlled.
The alleged “sex club,” according to the suit, was started by the former student in the 2011-12 school year, when he was in the sixth grade. Alleged sex acts occurred in the student cottages on campus — in the bedrooms, bathrooms and hallways — through the 2013-14 school year. The club had “numerous members,” according to the complaint.
At the time, a Department of Education spokeswoman said the school “immediately notified the appropriate authorities, including the CHP and Child Protective Services,” upon learning of the allegations. She added that the school was reviewing its policies and practices, conducting additional staff training and implementing further safeguards, saying it was “deeply concerned” and doing “everything in our power to maintain a safe learning environment for our students.”
The lawsuit was dismissed in August 2017 after a settlement was reached for more than $1 million, court records show.
Klein declined to comment.
Jury selection gets underway Friday and opening statements are scheduled the following week before Judge Eric A. Keen at the historic courthouse in downtown Riverside.
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