Three adult women who are suing the Glendale Unified School District, alleging they were secretly recorded as minors in a restroom and in a ceramics room more than 20 years ago by a Crescenta Valley High School teacher, want a judge to allow them to remain anonymous.
The women are identified only as AWKO Does 67-68 in the Burbank Superior Court lawsuit that alleges negligence, negligent supervision of a minor, negligent hiring, supervision and retention of an employee, negligent failure to warn, train or educate, breach of a mandatory duty and dangerous condition of a public property. All three women have already engaged in self-harm due to their mental health, according to their attorneys’ court papers.
On Monday, the plaintiffs’ lawyers filed court papers with Judge Frank M. Tavelman in advance of a March 27 hearing asking permission to continue using pseudonyms during the court of the litigation.
In previous court papers, GUSD attorneys denied the plaintiffs’ allegations and contend, among other defenses, that their claims are barred by the statute of limitations.
While the general rule requires parties to proceed under their true identities, the plaintiffs’ case presents the “rarest of circumstances” and the court should conclude that the three women have an overriding interest in remaining anonymous, the plaintiffs’ lawyers further state in their pleadings.
The women’s attorneys further state in their court papers that the trio gave sworn declarations stating that each has suffered such severe anxiety and depression from the abuse that they have resorted to self-harm, including AWKO 67 and 68 slashing their wrists and AWKO 66 “punching herself in the face and the stomach,” according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ court papers.
The actual content of the women’s declarations has been removed from the court docket. However, in their court papers the women’s attorneys additionally state that their clients fear that predators will dox, stalk and harass them and their families if their identities are made public.
The plaintiffs were CVHS students from about August 2001 to May 2004 and during that time they were “sexually groomed, abused and used in the production, distribution and possession of child sexual abuse material” by teacher Rogelio “Roger” Gallardo, the suit alleges.
The GUSD “knew or should have known that Gallardo was a danger to children and that he was likely to use his position of power over minor students to groom, harass, sexually abuse” minor students, according to the complaint.
Gallardo secretly filmed the private parts of the plaintiffs while they were using the faculty bathroom next to the ceramics classroom and/or in the clay-mixing room, the suit alleges. The plaintiffs were anywhere from 14 to 18 years old at the time, the suit further states.
With Doe 66, Gallardo complimented her on her figure, hugged her, discussed his private life with her and paid her to model for him at CVHS, the suit states. Gallardo and Doe 67 spent breakfast time together in the ceramics classroom at CVHS before school started and the teacher fueled Doe 68’s confidence in him by regularly comforting and guiding her, according to the suit.
Gallardo also placed a camera in the clay mixing room under a pallet that students would stand on to mix clay so he could record their private parts under their skirts, the suit states. A female student found the bathroom camera in May 2004 and a police investigation revealed that Gallardo had filmed the plaintiffs many times in various stages of undress and put the images on discs for his home computer, the suit states.
Gallardo also put some of the images of the plaintiffs and other minors on the internet, the suit alleges. The teacher was sentenced in 2005 to three years in state prison after pleading no contest to 15 felony counts of intent to distribute pornography, nine misdemeanor counts of peeping, eight misdemeanor counts of illegal recording, one misdemeanor count of eavesdropping and one misdemeanor count of destroying evidence, according to the suit filed last July 31.