Facts

Three elementary school girls filed a lawsuit against the Riverside Unified School District in relation to allegations of sexual abuse against an RUSD employee.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs alleged that they were sexually molested by a teacher's aide and RUSD attempted to destroy and alter records related to the lawsuit. Plaintiffs claimed that RUSD employees, including the school therapist and principal, attempted to conceal and/or destroy multiple student reports that detailed prior incidents of sexual assault and statements by victims. The RUSD employees also allegedly tried to create and manipulate supervision documents to reflect constant supervision over the teacher's aide.

Under sworn depositions, several individual RUSD employee's admitted to engaging in efforts to destroy or alter documents.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: RUSD contended it took immediate action and notified the police when an allegation of sexual molestation by an instructional aide was
reported. RUSD contended all documents relating to the alleged student victims were confidential and submitted directly to Child Protective Services and the Riverside Police Dept.

RUSD denied plaintiffs' allegations that RUSD employees tried to destroy documents or create and manipulate supervision documents. Thousands of pages of documents were produced during the litigation.

Result

The case settled for $6.2 million.

Other Information

The criminal case against the instructional aide is still pending.