District: Student ‘Was Herself Responsible’ For Being Raped

[ceg045]

Two teachers at Moraga middle school in northern California sexually abused Kristen Cunnane in the 1990s. One, former P.E. teacher Julie Correa, received an eight year sentence for committing multiple sex crimes against Cunnane. The other, former science teacher Daneil Witters, committed suicide after several students came forward with allegations against him in 1996.

Now an adult, Cunnane filed a lawsuit against the school district that employed these two teachers, seeking compensation for being raped and abused for several years. In response to her legal complaint, the district offered a surprising defense:

Defendants allege that Plaintiff was herself careless and negligent in and about the matters alleged in the complaint, and that said carelessness and negligence on said Plaintiff’s part proximately contributed to the happenings of the incident and to the injuries, loss and damages complained of, if any there were . . . .

[Alternatively, d]efendants allege that Plaintiff was herself responsible for the acts and damages of which she claims herein, and by reason thereof is estopped from obtaining any damages as result thereof.

Just in case this dry legal language is not clear, the school district claims that Cunnane was “herself responsible†for the fact that she was repeatedly sexually abused by her school teachers, beginning at age 12. Or, just in case a jury won’t buy that claim, that she was “careless and negligent†in the matter of her own rape.

To be fair, the most likely explanation for how the school district could have come to make such a claim is more of an indictment of the district’s lawyers than of its administrators. The school district’s legal filing is almost entirely boilerplate language of the kind that careless attorneys might copy and paste into a document without considering its implications — or its likely emotional impact on a child sex abuse victim. The district, however, is not apologizing for its claims. Instead, it released a statement claiming that “this is a significant case that could have serious consequences for our school district. . . . As a result, at this point in the proceedings we have an obligation not to waive any potential legal lines of defense.â€

Link: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/1 ... ing-raped/

[RosyDaisy]

OMFG WTH! Are they really saying that this woman who was a 12-year old girl at the was responsible for her sexual assault? No...just no! :angry-screaming: :evil: :angry-cussingblack: This is textbook blame the victim. Fuck you school district!

[Jajajajulie]

I hear about this on FB. Unbelievable!

[Mela99]

Jesus H Christ on toast. What a shitty lawyer those people have... underage girls are negligent for getting raped? Ohh I want this in front of a jury so there can be an ungodly smackdown

[CallmeChaCha]

So sad that a school district would let something like this be filed. She was just a child. Maybe parents should be wary of keeping their children in this school district, if the district is going to be faulting children for being victims. Disgusting.

[2xx1xy1JD]

It does look like standard legal language that gets inserted into typical civil claims (not just sexual abuse). You would expect to see the same phrase in a slip-and-fall case, for example.

At the same time, to just insert that language in a highly charged sexual abuse case, without really taking a hard look at what you are writing, if it is even logical, or without considering the fact that legal pleadings are public documents, is sloppy work. However, while I think it's sloppy, I don't think that it was intended to be deliberate shaming of a sexual abuse victim. The more likely explanation is that a lawyer was up against a deadline to file, and just inserted the same language used in all claims against the school board (which would typically be of the slips and fall, or hit by a basketball variety).

[SomewhatFundy]

That school must really want to give this woman some money. Because they are surely about to after using that completely ridiculous defense.

[teddybear]

I hope that woman ends up owning that school district. I can't believe they would respond to the lawsuit in that matter. No 12 year old child is at fault for a crime such as that, can't be. It makes me very angry.

[Sola]

And this is in California? I'd expect this in Texas or Alabama,but California? This is disgusting. I hope it goes viral.

[luckystone]

It does look like standard legal language that gets inserted into typical civil claims (not just sexual abuse). You would expect to see the same phrase in a slip-and-fall case, for example.

At the same time, to just insert that language in a highly charged sexual abuse case, without really taking a hard look at what you are writing, if it is even logical, or without considering the fact that legal pleadings are public documents, is sloppy work. However, while I think it's sloppy, I don't think that it was intended to be deliberate shaming of a sexual abuse victim. The more likely explanation is that a lawyer was up against a deadline to file, and just inserted the same language used in all claims against the school board (which would typically be of the slips and fall, or hit by a basketball variety).

That's what I thought, it reads like standard contributory negligence, but what the hell did she do exactly to be in any way responsible? Did they even say?

[Deleted03]

It does look like standard legal language that gets inserted into typical civil claims (not just sexual abuse). You would expect to see the same phrase in a slip-and-fall case, for example.

At the same time, to just insert that language in a highly charged sexual abuse case, without really taking a hard look at what you are writing, if it is even logical, or without considering the fact that legal pleadings are public documents, is sloppy work. However, while I think it's sloppy, I don't think that it was intended to be deliberate shaming of a sexual abuse victim. The more likely explanation is that a lawyer was up against a deadline to file, and just inserted the same language used in all claims against the school board (which would typically be of the slips and fall, or hit by a basketball variety).

but doesn't that negate the previous trial where adults were said to be responsible (in addition to the outrageous idea that it's this girl fault or that she pursued it.)

[mirele]

It looks like standard boilerplate contributory negligence language. *sigh*

Let me put it this way. If the lawyers put it in, they get this reaction. If they don't put it in, they could be up for malpractice, because contributory negligence is a standard in tort law.

Another way to think about this is, even if the state got criminal convictions against the perps, that fact may or may not be able to be judicially noticed (i.e., brought into evidence) in the civil lawsuit. It depends on the state common law and statute.

I'll be honest: it's ugly, it stinks, but it is due to the fact that we have a bifurcated (criminal/civil) legal system, and things that happen on one side are not always legally taken into account on the other side.

[Rosa]

Also, I don't know about California but in some places districts have policies (or even local laws that have been passed to set the policy) of always replying the same way to lawsuits. A lot of times cities have that policy about police misconduct/brutality cases. It stops scammers who sue & give the city attorney a kickback on the settlement.

Not that this isn't awful, and I hope she wins a lot of cash. But sometimes bureaucrats hands are tied.

[marmalade]

And this is in California? I'd expect this in Texas or Alabama,but California? This is disgusting. I hope it goes viral.

Yup, about 15 miles from me. If the victim ends up "owning" the school district, she'll be quite a rich woman. Moraga is a very quiet bedroom community of multi-million dollar homes (and St. Mary's College, out in the middle of nowhere). Lots of $$$$ to be had out there.

I saw this thread yesterday, but didn't have time to open it. When I saw the story on the news this morning, I shook my head and knew before I logged in here that it was the same case.

[Claddagh]

This really pisses me off. It's never the victim's fault. We're in the year 2012 but sometimes I think we've set ourselves back a few hundred years.

Growing up and going to a California school the district I went to also blamed the victim.

[celestial]

:( We live in a sick world, if blaming a child who was repeatedly raped is standard legal practice.

[shesinsane]

Must've been tough for those lawyers - it's always the woman's fault, but both the victim and the abuser are female. What do to?

The principal (Bill Walters) who took no action while teachers were abusing students retired this summer, but the country club where the victim was supposed to teach a swimming clinic cancelled it in a show of support of Walters.

http://www.sfbayareaobserver.com/2012/0 ... er-up.html

[2xx1xy1JD]

:( We live in a sick world, if blaming a child who was repeatedly raped is standard legal practice.

It's likely the standard practice of the school board's attorneys to use pretty much identical language in ANY case where the board is sued for damages. Pleadings are not sworn facts - they are just claims, which may or may not be true, which set out all of the possible legal grounds to either grant or deny the damages being sought.

Time limits also mean that defendants often file very standard responses, because there often isn't time to get into specific details and since full disclosure of police records, etc. comes later.

So, I'd say that it is standard practice to blame ANYONE suing anyone for ANYTHING for not being careful and/or actually causing their own injuries. It's a civil litigation lawyer thing, not a misogynist thing.

Now, in this particular case, it reads in a particularly hurtful way. That's part of the problem with allowing cases to go to trial instead of settling them. The school board should have ideally given a heads up to the lawyers that this was a sensitive matter, and that the documents would be available to the public. It may have been worthwhile to either settle this out, or at least phrase things better, to avoid bad optics and doing more damage to the victim.

[marmalade]

Must've been tough for those lawyers - it's always the woman's fault, but both the victim and the abuser are female. What do to?

The principal (Bill Walters) who took no action while teachers were abusing students retired this summer, but the country club where the victim was supposed to teach a swimming clinic cancelled it in a show of support of Walters.

http://www.sfbayareaobserver.com/2012/0 ... er-up.html

As I said, definitely a culture of the ruling class exists there. My Vietnamese (former) hairstylist lived out there and when I talked to her daughter, who just graduated from college, she said she was one of a handful of minorities, parents were typically doctors, lawyers and Silicon Valley execs. Service industry peeps, even higher-scale ones like this woman, are rare.

A friend suggested I apply to St. Mary's for grad school. I nixed that idea in a hot second. I could NEVER exist out there, and I could certainly never fulfill my student teaching reqs at their snooty schools where pretty much every kid goes to a four-year university.

Even worse, I think this is the swim club my niece swam with, as Oakland doesn't have any competitive clubs that are the ticket to getting an athletic scholarship. I'll have to ask, but I know my sister took her out in that direction to swim for years. If this is the same club, both my sister and niece, who is now 25, will be livid.

[marmalade]

Okay, niece is safe. She swam for the other ritzy town's club.