LA JOLLA, Calif. (KGTV) — The San Diego Unified School District announced Wednesday that a sexual abuse lawsuit against a retired La Jolla High School teacher has been resolved.
Four former students of the physics teacher filed the lawsuit in Feb. 2020, accusing him of multiple sexual assaults between 2003 and 2014. The lawsuit specifically said two students reported in 2003 that the teacher had put his hands down a female student's pants, yet the district never reported it to the San Diego County District Attorney's Office or California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
The district gave credit to one of the plantiffs, Loxie Gant, for helping it review and revamp how it handles allegations of sexual assault, as well as the policies and procedures around it. SDUSD says since 2018, it has reviewed its sexual assault policies annually so they can stay consistent with the laws and best practices.
"The district respects the courage of the claimants in this matter for speaking out and remains committed to making the safety of its students a top priority," the district says.
ABC 10News spoke to Gant when she filed the lawsuit against her former teacher and the district in 2020.
“I’ve been trying for years to get San Diego Unified to admit their faults and take responsibility for what happened,” Gant told us at the time.
According to our Team 10 investigation from 2020, the former teacher had been retired since 2017 and was collecting an $80,000 per year pension.
10News did not identify the teacher, since he was not facing criminal charges.
