A lawsuit was brought on behalf of a teenager against Los Angeles Unified, alleging a teacher at an East Los Angeles high school molested the boy in 2017-18 when he was 15 years old, court papers obtained Tuesday show.
The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiff, now 16, is identified only as G.L in the complaint, which was filed Thursday and seeks unspecified damages.
An LAUSD representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the lawsuit. However, the district released a statement after the 2018 arrest of the teacher, Gina Murry, which stated the allegations against her were "disturbing and undermine our continuing efforts to provide a secure learning environment for all of our students."
Murry, a co-defendant in the suit along with the LAUSD, worked at the East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy at Esteban E. Torres High School. She is charged with six counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and four counts each of committing a lewd act on a child, oral copulation of a person under 16 and sexual penetration by a foreign object.
If convicted as charged, she could face up to 17 years in state prison, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
The lawsuit alleges Murry abused the boy from August 2017 until June 2018. According to the complaint, the school principal placed the boy under Murry's supervision after he was bullied by peers during his freshman year. She groomed him by giving him special treatment by buying him gifts and playing video games with him, the suit alleges.
During an overnight field trip to a local university, Murry sexually abused the plaintiff in her personal vehicle and in a tent she shared with him, according to the complaint, which also alleges Murry molested the teen on "multiple" other occasions, much of which occurred on school grounds and at school-sanctioned events.
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"G.L. was unable to evade Murry's sexual assault and battery," the suit alleges.
Other students saw Murry's "blatant instances of sexual harassment" and told school administrators what they had observed, according to the lawsuit.
The alleged failure of LAUSD administrators to protect the plaintiff from Murry has left him with emotional distress and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, the suit states.
The district also knew or should have known that Murry allegedly abused other students, including some at the same time as G.L., the complaint alleges.
