GILROY – A brand new lawsuit filed in opposition to the Gilroy Unified Faculty District alleges that faculty officers don’t sufficiently shield college students from bodily assault on faculty campuses after a 16-year-old pupil was violently assaulted by one other pupil at Christopher Excessive Faculty final yr.
The lawsuit, which was filed Might 2 by the regulation agency of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard in Santa Clara County, is looking for damages for minor plaintiff Jane Doe, who will not be recognized by identify within the lawsuit on account of her age. It alleges that the college district didn’t comply with necessary security procedures or implement enough security plans to maintain college students protected from bodily assault on campus.
“This is now the third lawsuit I’ve had to file with something similar to this, and, unfortunately, these fights keep occurring,” stated Mark Boskovich, lawyer for the plaintiff. “The least we can expect from our schools is that kids are not being beat up on campus all the time, and unfortunately, it’s just become such a frequent thing that it’s forced us to take these more serious measures to get anything done.”
Boskovich added that the lawsuit will not be “strictly about compensation” and goals to pressure the district to take fights on campus extra severely.
The Gilroy Unified Faculty District doesn’t touch upon ongoing litigation and can reply to the authorized criticism “appropriately and as required by law,” stated Melanie Corona, the district’s public data officer. The district declined to touch upon the alleged assault.
“The Gilroy Unified School District is committed to the safety of all students and staff as its first priority,” stated Corona. “Per California Education Code, all schools in the Gilroy Unified School District have a board-approved comprehensive school safety plan that is reviewed, updated and approved annually. The Board of Education last reviewed and approved the comprehensive school safety plans in February 2025.”
The brand new submitting follows a $100,000 settlement reached Might 6 with Gilroy Unified Faculty District in an analogous case that alleged a pupil at Solorsano Center Faculty was concussed in an assault on campus after her dad and mom warned the college about threats on two events, in keeping with a press launch from the regulation agency.
Boskovich stated that the district didn’t commit to creating any modifications with that settlement however famous that it’s tough to get an actual treatment past cash in a civil lawsuit.
“What my client and myself are hoping for is that when you have insurers paying these kind of claims out, it’s going to put pressure on the school districts to say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to keep paying these claims, you’ve got to put these measures in place to make sure these aren’t happening,’ ” Boskovich stated. “It puts a lot of pressure on the ones being sued to make changes so these things do not keep happening.”
A 3rd lawsuit in opposition to the district that was filed on September 13, 2023 stays pending, the regulation agency stated. That case alleges that the district didn’t shield a developmentally disabled pupil in ninth grade at Christopher Excessive Faculty from a classmate’s bodily assault.
The three lawsuits are based mostly on the California Training Code’s mandate that faculty officers should shield their college students, the regulation agency stated.
“Despite (Gilroy Unified School District’s) knowledge of the prevalence of violence and bullying on its campuses, it took no action to increase supervision of its students,” the lawsuit says.
On March 8, 2024, Jane Doe was allegedly attacked by fellow tenth grade pupil Heather Doe, who will not be recognized by identify within the lawsuit as a result of she is a minor. The lawsuit alleges that Heather Doe pulled Jane Doe’s hoodie over her head and knocked her to the bottom, the place she attacked her for 3 to 4 minutes. The assault was recorded by pupil bystanders, the lawsuit says.
The swimsuit additionally lists Heather Doe as a defendant, in keeping with court docket filings.
No faculty employees had been current to intervene within the assault, the lawsuit alleges. It additionally maintains that the college didn’t adequately act on Heather Doe’s historical past of violence regardless of being conscious. The lawsuit alleges that Heather Doe was beforehand faraway from one other faculty in Gilroy Unified Faculty District on account of violent actions.
Boskovich stated that plaintiffs are hoping that the lawsuit will pressure the college to commit extra assets to supervising college students throughout breaks and taking bodily assaults that do happen extra severely to create a “cultural change in these schools.”
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Jane Doe has not returned to high school for the reason that assault on account of feeling unsafe on campus, in keeping with the lawsuit.
The lawsuit additional alleges that the district has been conscious of the “significant risk” of scholars assaulting different college students, referencing different alleged incidents comparable to a pupil being stabbed in a locker room at Christopher Excessive Faculty. It additionally factors to a publicly-available Instagram web page on which movies of scholars preventing on Gilroy faculty campuses are posted.
Mary Doe, Jane Doe’s mom, who can also be not named within the lawsuit to take care of the minor pupil’s anonymity, had raised issues about campus security previous to the assault, the lawsuit says. The college’s principal advised Mary Doe that the fights occurred as a result of the college solely had 4 or 5 campus supervisors and didn’t have the funds to rent extra.
