LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A lawsuit was brought on behalf of a former Dominguez High School student against the Compton Unified School District, alleging the administration did not do enough to protect her from being bullied and attacked in 2021 on campus by a fellow pupil, resulting in the plaintiff being hospitalized with a concussion.
The plaintiff is identified only as J.R. in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, which alleges negligence, negligent hiring, supervision or retention of an employee and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
A CUSD representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Monday by J.R.’s mother on her daughter’s behalf, given that the plaintiff is a minor.
J.R. was a student at Dominguez High in Compton in July 2021 and was sitting in front of the main office when another girl, identified in the suit only as Student J, punched her in the face, the suit states.
“Terrified and in a state of panic, plaintiff attempted to enter the office in order to seek safe haven from the bullying and physical violence, but Student J and her friends barred plaintiff’s entry while continuing to taunt and threaten her, both verbally and physically,” according to the suit.
No staff members or administrators intervened to help J.R., the suit alleges.
J.R. ran away, but was caught by Student J and her friends, who continued to laugh at, deride and threaten the plaintiff, the suit states. Student J was significantly taller and larger than the slight and thin J.R., the suit states.
Student J’s attack was able to strike the plaintiff from behind with a fist even as a “young male” tried to intervene and protect J.R, according to the suit. J.R. continued trying to get away, but Student J grabbed her from behind by the hair and hurled her to the ground, then “viciously socked plaintiff at least four times in the head and face with her right closed fist,” the suit states.
Video footage of the assault was later posted on social media to essentially showcase and boast about Student J’s fighting skills and mock J.R.’s decision to file a lawsuit, the suit states.
Two males were ultimately able to extricate J.R. from Student J’s grasp, the suit states.
When J.R.’s brother took her sibling to the office to report the alleged attack, Student J, who had also returned to the area in front of the DHS office with her friends, yelled to the plaintiff, “Awww, she is scared. Next time I see her, I’m gonna beat her (buttocks) again,” according to the suit.
When the girl’s mother arrived, she demanded that the school take action to protect her child’s safety, but the assistant principal told the woman that his hands were tied and that he could not do anything to guarantee J.R.’s safety, according to the suit.
Later at a hospital, J.R. was diagnosed with a concussion, head trauma, a swollen bloody lip and a hematoma of the scalp, the suit states. Her mother returned to the school to again demand a safe environment for her daughter, but was told that the CUSD was managing Student J’s case at the district level and that Dominguez High’s administration was “precluded from intervening in the matter to either discipline the assailant or protect the victim,” the suit states.
“As a result of this looming and serious threat to her child’s safety, (J.R.’s mother) had no choice but to uproot plaintiff and transfer her to a different school, despite plaintiff’s love for DHS,” the suit states.
J.R. continues to suffer from the alleged assault by Student J, including physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, anxiety, fear and diminution in her quality of life and ability to learn, according to the suit, which blames her condition on the CUSD’s “reckless, negligent, and outrageous failure to protect a child in their care from a known threat.”