By Jason Cato, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Jul. 1–A former Upper St. Clair High School student and her parents sued the school district and several officials in federal court Monday, claiming they failed to protect her from being raped by a fellow student despite previous reports of attacks by the boy.
The family claims a school video camera captured images Feb. 4 of the 14-year-old girl being dragged out of a restroom, down a hallway and into a stairwell, where her lawyer said she was “brutally and violently” raped near a bloody handprint.
The unnamed girl was the second person to be raped in the stairwell within an hour, said attorney David J. Barton. The handprint, Barton said, was left by the assailant during the sexual assault of another girl three days earlier.
Police arrested the unnamed boy mentioned in the lawsuit in February on charges of rape, indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Neither the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office nor the boy’s attorney, Caroline Roberto, would comment, citing a gag order in the criminal case.
Barton said the gag order restricts him from revealing identities or divulging where he obtained details of the attacks.
None of the defendants could be reached for comment.
“Not only did they fail to protect our daughter, but they also disregarded school district disciplinary and safety policies and, as a result, created a greater risk to our daughter,” the girl’s father wrote in a statement provided by Barton.
The lawsuit states the boy sexually assaulted five girls — at least three of whom had reported the incidents to school officials prior to the February attacks. After the plaintiff, now 15, and two other girls reported inappropriate behavior by the boy, the lawsuit states he was placed on three days’ in-school suspension.
The lawsuit accuses the district and some staff of failing to comply with state and federal laws, which required police to be contacted after reports of sexual assaults. The girl and her parents claim the defendants violated her state and federal Constitutional rights to bodily integrity, of using a reckless policy of concealing sexual assaults, and failing to correct severe, pervasive student-on-student harassment and a sexually hostile environment.
Named as defendants in addition to the district are Superintendent Patrick O’Toole, Assistant Superintendent Terrence Kushner, Principal Michael Ghilani, assistant principals Jace Palmer and Lou Angelo, and teachers Esther VonWaldow and Jennifer Wagner.
The lawsuit claims the plaintiff met the boy in the sixth grade and that he forced her at knife-point to perform sex acts off campus last fall. He again assaulted her off-campus in December, the lawsuit states. VonWaldow, formerly known as Esther Haguel, asked the girl about a bruise and was told the boy was responsible, the family claims.
In January, according to the lawsuit, the boy again attacked the girl after class in the school’s lower level. Following this attack, the girl told VonWaldow that the boy was forcing her to perform sexual acts, the lawsuit states.
Police weren’t contacted until after the three February rapes, the lawsuit states.
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