A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of a boy, then 6 years old, whose teacher allegedly admitted leaving the sleeping child alone in his South Los Angeles kindergarten classroom to go to a doctor’s appointment in 2020, causing him to awaken later feeling frantic and uncertain.
The boy’s paternal grandmother was left to worry regarding his whereabouts when she went to pick him up after school, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court complaint, which alleged negligence, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligent hiring, retention and supervision.
On Friday, the boy’s attorney filed court papers with Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis notifying her of a “conditional” settlement in the case with the expectation a request for dismissal will be filed by Aug. 30. No terms were divulged.
The suit was brought on behalf of the boy, now 10, by his father. In their court papers, LAUSD attorneys denied any liability on the district’s part and cited multiple defenses, including that the district had immunity and acted reasonably under the circumstances and that the plaintiff himself was negligent and assumed the risk.
According to the suit brought in April 2021, the child attended Charles W. Barrett Elementary School on West 98th Street and went to class as usual on Feb. 7, 2020. But later that day, his father received a call from the grandmother about 2 p.m. asking him if he had picked up the boy early because the child was not at the campus gate where she met him daily and there were no school personnel present that she could question, the suit stated.
The boy’s grandmother became alarmed and asked the child’s aunt for help in finding him. Meanwhile, the boy’s father called the child’s mother and told her they could not find their son, the suit stated.
The family members called the school office and the staff members said they also did not know the boy’s whereabouts, according to the plaintiffs.
At about 3:30 p.m., the boy’s aunt called the child’s father and said she found his son wandering alone outside of the school in a state of shock, “hysterically crying, shaking and mumbling,” according to the suit.
The boy said he fell asleep in his classroom at his desk and that everyone was gone when he woke up, so when he realized he was alone, he became frantic and did not know what to do, the suit stated.
The boy’s parents went back to the school three days later and met with the principal. The child’s teacher was also present and said she left the boy alone in the classroom because she had a 3 p.m. doctor’s appointment, the suit alleged
“Plaintiff’s teacher knew that she left (him) alone voluntarily,” the suit stated. “Plaintiff’s teacher asked (the boy’s father) for mercy and to forgive her for leaving (his son) in the classroom alone.”