School District: Middle Schooler Bears Blame in Teacher Sex Abuse

The Los Angeles Unified School District is arguing that a 14-year-old girl should be partly responsible for sexual abuse by her eighth-grade teacher, it was reported today.

The district made the argument this week to the state Court of Appeal in a case involving a former student at Edison Middle School who was coaxed into sex on and off campus by her teacher, Elkis Hermida, over seven months in 2010 and 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Hermida was convicted of lewd acts with a minor and sentenced to three years in prison in 2011. But two years later, a Los Angeles jury rejected the girl’s claims that the district was negligent in supervising Hermida and was liable for her emotional damage, prompting the appeal.

In the appeal, Holly Boyer, the girl’s Pasadena attorney, argued that Judge Lawrence Cho erred in allowing evidence of the student’s prior sexual history and permitting the district to argue that she was partially at fault in her own abuse.

“It is astounding that the district would take the position that a student has a duty to protect herself from abuse,” Boyer told The Times in an interview Wednesday.

“People in positions of authority use their positions to build relationships of trust and slowly introduce sex to get the the child to acquiesce,” Boyer said. “To then point to the child and say ‘you let it happen’ is really crazy.’”

David Holmquist, general counsel for the district, said the issue today is whether the trial judge made the right decision

“We think that the trial court decision was correct,” he said.

The district will not comment on whether the middle schooler was at fault for the ongoing abuse, he added.

“We have already said all that we are going to say about that in the trial,” said Holmquist.

The district continues to maintain that it did not know of the abuse and should not have known given the circumstances, he added.

In its appellate brief, the district’s attorney’s office said the girl was partly responsible because she lied to her parents and teachers to conceal a voluntary sexual relationship with Hermida and “therefore thwarted the District’s ability to find out about it and stop it,” according to The Times. The officials also said it was proper to include evidence of her past sexual history to evaluate her emotional distress.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.