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Two new lawsuits were filed Wednesday against the Gilroy Unified School District for its handling of a teacher who was allegedly “sexting” with students. Los Angeles lawyer Gloria Allred announced the suits Wednesday during a late afternoon press conference—in time for the nightly news—outside the GUSD office on Arroyo Circle.
Allred claimed that GUSD failed to protect its students from sexual misconduct involving a teacher, even after it received a complaint from a parent that Gilroy High School biology teacher Douglas Le had sent inappropriate texts to her daughter, thinking he was sending them to a boy.
Le, 25, was arrested at his San Jose home April 26 for allegedly posing as a female and luring children into sending harmful material online, police said. He resigned from the school April 29.
“We allege that GUSD failed to protect and safeguard our clients from the sexual misconduct against them by Mr. Le, even though GUSD knew that Mr. Le had previously engaged in unlawful sexually related conduct with minors at Gilroy High School, because GUSD had been warned about Mr. Le by Celest Benn,” she told the gathering that included a number of area television stations.
Allred filed a lawsuit for Benn’s minor daughter against GUSD in May.
“A major goal of our lawsuits is to impose policy and practice changes on the district to make sure that this never happens again,” Allred said. “In addition, we are seeking damages, including punitive damages according to proof at trial. Our clients, who are minor children, were seriously harmed and impacted by GUSD’s failure to protect them from verbal, physical, and sexual harassment by their teacher.”
The new lawsuits allege that Allred’s clients, two male minors, “began and continue to experience multiple emotional, physical, and psychological problems such as depression, academic demoralization, and dread that Mr. Le’s actions would destroy their ability to gain entrance into a good college, sleeplessness, distrust, isolation, and alienation,” Allred said.
Le’s actions and the failure of the school district destroyed what should have been the happiest and most carefree period in the lives of these children, she said.
“Although we have filed these lawsuits today, they will not be the last ones that we file, because other alleged victims of Mr. Le have contacted us and are considering their legal options as well,” Allred said.
GUSD declined to comment on the press conference.
In May, GUSD Superintendent Deborah Flores said she and a panel of two others investigated the initial complaint in October 2014 and took disciplinary action against Le. She said it was the highest level of action she could take, but wouldn’t elaborate on the specifics of the case.
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