A 35-year-old man is suing Los Angeles Unified, alleging his female high school Spanish teacher sexually abused him starting nearly 20 years ago, causing him panic attacks that forced him to skip going to his graduation ceremony at the Boyle Heights campus.
The plaintiff is identified only as John Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court suit, which alleges sexual abuse of a minor, sexual assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision of a minor and failure to report suspected child abuse.
The suit seeks unspecified compensatory damages against the district and both compensatory and punitive damages against the alleged perpetrator, Gabriela Cortez. She was sentenced in 2013 to five years probation after pleading guilty to six felony sex charges involving two other former LAUSD students for abuses that occurred between September 2009 and November 2010.
An LAUSD representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit filed Friday.
Doe was in his junior year at Roosevelt High School in the 2004-05 school year and Cortez, then in her 30s, was his Spanish teacher, according to his suit.
“She immediately took an interest in plaintiff and began grooming and conditioning him with the specific intent of manipulating his emotions and taking advantage of his young age so that she could ultimately sexually abuse him,” the suit alleges.
Doe had Cortez as a Spanish teacher again in his senior year and she continued her pattern of grooming and conditioning Doe, in part by sharing information about her personal life in her classroom during school hours, the suit states.
Cortez also coerced Doe into telling her about himself and she eventually flirted openly with Doe by touching him, the suit alleges.
“This culminated in Cortez sexually abusing plaintiff on numerous occasions during the first semester of his senior year while he was a minor,” the suit states.
Doe had panic attacks as a result during his senior year and had one so severe on graduation day that he could not participate in the proceedings, according to the suit, which further states he has suffered emotional distress and economic damages.