A 15-year-old young woman has accused multiple members of the Culver City High School football team with sexually assaulting her, apparently during school hours.
Further, unbeknownst to her, a video of the successive humiliations surreptitiously was made and distributed to certain students, according to her lawsuit.
The case was filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court and unspecified damages are being sought.
School District Supt. Dave LaRose issued the following statement to this newspaper this afternoon:
“We recently became aware of a lawsuit that was filed against the Culver City Unified District regarding an incident in December 2013.
“CCUSD and our entire community believe the health, welfare and safety of our students is paramount. We responded immediately and cooperatively to this incident with the Culver City Police Dept..
“While I cannot comment about specific details regarding the allegations contained in the lawsuit, our District will remain unwavering in our commitment to protect the children we serve and respond aggressively to any action that challenges this priority.”
The young woman said in the suit she has considered suicide.
When two of her alleged attackers learned she had reported the assault to school officials, City News Service said they confronted her and tried to make her lie and recant her accusations.
The suit says she was 14 years old when the alleged assault took place on campus.
The accused boys warned her not to tell anyone, according to the suit, harassing and threatening her.
When copies of the video were circulated among other students, the act was effective in “spreading rumors regarding (the young woman’s) promiscuity,” the suit charges.
The student charges that she was a virgin when players allegedly attacked her “multiple times between the dates of Dec. 4, 2013, and Dec 23, 2013.”
The girl asserts that she was overwhelmed.
City News Service quotes the lawsuit as saying that “as starting players, assailants were in peak physical condition, extremely strong and physically intimidating.”
The suit says the players convinced the girl to “hang out” in the campus parking lot and listen to music while school was in session. She was forced to perform sex acts on the players before an audience, she charges.
