12-Year-Old Accuses El Sereno Elementary Teacher of Sexual Harassment

LOS ANGELES, CA -- A lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of a girl who alleges she was sexually harassed by one of her teachers when she was 12 years old can move forward to trial, a judge ruled today.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Samantha Jessner denied a defense motion to dismiss part or all of the negligence suit filed in March 2013 by the mother of the girl, who is identified as P.S. in court papers.

In her nine-page ruling, Jessner said the LAUSD's motion "suffers from procedural defects" and that it was difficult for her to determine which facts referred to each claim and its elements.

"Given the importance of such a moment, one would think that defense counsel would make a serious and concerted effort to comply with the procedural rules," Jessner wrote.

The suit alleges the girl's seventh-grade math teacher at El Sereno Elementary School, Phillip Stover, made numerous inappropriate comments to her during the 2011-12 school year, including, "I love you," "I have (plaintiff) on my mind," "Do you like me?," "Do you like me with a beard?" and "Do you like me in shorts?"

Stover also allegedly rubbed the girl's shoulders and kept her inside his classroom with the door locked.

"On another occasion Stover put his face inches from P.S. in an effort to kiss her," the plaintiff's attorneys' court papers allege.

The girl complained to her mother, who reported to a school counselor what her daughter told her and asked that she be transferred from Stover's classroom, the plaintiff's lawyers' court papers state.

Lawyers for the girl maintained the counselor did not make a written report as required by LAUSD policy and that Los Angeles police did not know what happened until the assistant principal penned his own account to the police. The attorneys also alleged the district disregarded statements by two other students that Stover picked on the girl and looked at her buttocks on one occasion.

Defense attorney John Coleman told Jessner that the LAUSD had no record of any past wrongdoing by Stover to put them on notice that his conduct should be observed more than another teacher.

"He had an absolutely clean record," Coleman said. "He was one of the best teachers in the district. There was no evidence he was a bad guy."

Coleman said it was speculative to believe that on the one occasion Stover was looking at the girl's buttocks.

"I could look around the courtroom, but who's to say what I'm looking at," Coleman said.

Coleman said Stover routinely met with students in his classroom during lunch to help them improve their learning.

Stover is still listed among the staff of El Sereno Middle School on its website.

City News Service: Photo: Shutterstock