A man has reached a tentative settlement in his lawsuit in which he alleged a female Paramount Unified School District teacher sexually molested him when he was a student more than 20 years ago and conditioned good grades on being intimate with her, attorneys in the case told a judge Thursday.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maurice A. Leiter was informed of the “conditional” accord during what was scheduled to be the first day of trial of the lawsuit brought by the plaintiff, who is identified only as John GD Doe. The judge scheduled an April 24 hearing for an update on the finalization of the settlement. No terms were divulged.
The plaintiff, born in 1986, alleged that the district negligently supervised and retained teacher Gillian Melba Duran, who was Doe’s language arts teacher at Alondra Middle School. He maintains she sexually abused him from 2001-02. Duran was later convicted, according to the plaintiff’s court papers.
“Utilizing her position as a Paramount Unified School District teacher, Gillian Duran routinely sexually groomed plaintiff while he was her eighth grade student,” the suit brought in February 2022 stated.
Duran regularly touched the then-14-year-old boy in a sexual way in the classroom in front of the other children by massaging his shoulders, and when they were in seclusion, she told him how much she liked him, the suit stated.
“Duran regularly drove plaintiff alone in her car to and from school while sexually molesting him,” the suit alleged. “She also drove plaintiff from school to her home, where she gave him alcohol and sexually assaulted him.”
Duran additionally abused Doe in her classroom during the lunch hour, the suit stated.
“For the entirety of plaintiff’s eighth grade year, Duran’s conduct was disregarded by school officials … despite her routine absence from numerous faculty meetings and required faculty events,” the suit stated.
Duran considered the immigrant Doe vulnerable because he did not live with his biological parents and went back and forth to school on public transportation when the teacher did not drive him, the suit stated.
“He was shocked at his teacher’s sexual advances during his first ride home, but she told him that the status of his grades would be dependent on his compliance with her,” the suit stated.
Doe later reported the abuses to his father, who in turn told police, the suit stated. Duran was arrested and charged with 12 counts of child sexual abuse, according to the suit. She confessed to the crimes, was sentenced to a jail term and ordered to register as a sex offender when she was released, the suit stated.