Pasadena Unified hit with $887,000 judgment over a security guard’s role in students’ sexual encounter
Pasadena CA Oct 4 2019
A jury has ordered Pasadena Unified to pay a former student $887,416 after a sexual encounter in 2014 with another student was facilitated by a school security guard who is still employed by the district.
The district still has the opportunity to appeal the judgment, but early in the court proceedings, officials admitted the district personnel’s negligent supervision caused the encounter, according to documents filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The case didn’t center on fault but damages the district owed, said Keith Wyatt, a lawyer for the female student.
“The safety and well-being of our students is one of our highest priorities,” a spokeswoman for the district said. She declined to comment about the verdict, citing the active litigation, but confirmed that the security guard was still employed by the district.
Wyatt’s client, who was 14 years old and a freshman at Pasadena High School at the time, was pulled out of class by Billy Coleman, one of the school’s security guards. He unlocked the school’s auditorium and escorted the student inside where the 17-year-old male student was waiting for her.
In her court testimony, the student said she was not raped, but contended “she was pressured into engaging in the sexual encounter by the male student and by (Pasadena High School) personnel,” according to a statement released by Wyatt.
“I don’t know where you draw the line between pressure and coercion,” Wyatt said in an interview. “She was put in a difficult situation for a 14-year-old after being taken out of class by an authority figure and taken to the auditorium to meet the young man.”
Coleman “had a reputation for facilitating inappropriate conduct by students,” the attorney’s statement read.
The students were caught in the act by a janitor who took the pair to an administrator’s office; both were subsequently suspended, according to the complaint filed in 2017.
The female student was relentlessly bullied in the aftermath of the incident, Wyatt said. It was severe enough that she sought psychiatric help in the months that followed, at some point withdrawing from the school and finishing her education at an “alternative school,” he said.
She “lost four years of the important social interaction and maturity which come from having a normal, four-year high school experience,” the statement reads.
Coleman is still employed by the district, but has since been reassigned from Pasadena High School to Sierra Madre Middle School, where he’s listed online as staff. A spokeswoman for the district would not say if his reassignment was related to this case, citing district policy that prevents officials from discussing personnel issues.
It’s unclear exactly what the arrangement between Coleman and the male student involved. Because the district admitted fault early in the court proceedings, there was limited discovery; neither the security guard nor the student were witnesses during the trial, Wyatt said.
The district is currently struggling with financial issues. Last week, the district ordered three elementary schools closed for the next school year. Officials are expected to announce more closures by the end of the month, now looking towards secondary schools.
