In Win for Law Firm RMO LLP Client, Court Denies Motion to Dismiss San Bernardino Schools’ Disability Lawsuit

Abuse Lawsuit Against Granite Hills High Continues

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A federal judge has denied the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools’ motion to dismiss a civil rights lawsuit alleging the schools violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, among other laws

The lawsuit, filed October 31, 2019 by RMO LLP in Los Angeles, a law firm with a track record of succeeding in representing disabled and special needs students, alleged that the district’s long-standing pattern of “allowing and then concealing the abuse of special needs children” led to the abuse of A.M., a disabled female student at Granite Hills High School in Apple Valley, along with 10 of her classmates.

The district moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it is immune because the allegations don’t include sexual abuse. The court found that the district interpreted the law too narrowly. For that matter, the court found that none of the district’s arguments for dismissal were compelling enough to even merit a hearing.

“The district stated it was not prohibited from discriminating against people because of their disability, which the court disagreed with,” said David Greco, a San Diego-based attorney at RMO LLP who filed the lawsuit. “That the court so swiftly denied the motion is indicative of how bulletproof our complaint was, and that we have a very strong case to present to a jury.”

According to the court’s summary of the lawsuit, “the school district’s employees abused special needs students (by) stepping on (their) stomachs, clapping or screaming loudly near students whose disabilities make them sensitive to sound (as was the case with A.M.), aggressively grabbing students and bruising them, scratching students and causing scars, undressing students, threatening to shock students with a cattle prod, and handling students without proper caution, leading to … bleeding eye sockets and broken legs.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the district, “conceals this abuse and neglect … by withholding and deleting surveillance footage, withholding documents related to student injuries, lying about student injuries, discouraging employees from discussing student injuries with parents and retaliating against those who do, and leaving students with employees who have previously abused them or other students.”

RMO LLP provides personal, cost-effective litigation services to individual and institutional clients. The firm’s education attorneys have successfully pursued discrimination and abuse claims against private and public educational institutions and districts. RMO has offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Kansas City. For more information, please visit https://rmolawyers.com/.

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Jonathan Fitzgarrald

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