Families File Lawsuit Alleging School Failed to Protect Students

Families File Lawsuit Alleging School Failed to Protect Students

The families of two children who were sexually assaulted at the Latin American Montessori Bilingual Public Charter School (LAMB) have filed a $100 million lawsuit against the school and its administrators.  The filing alleges that employees failed to protect the children from its sexually deviant employee, Manuel Garcia Fernandez, who taught at the Northeast D.C. campus.  A month ago, the former teacher was sentenced to eight years in prison for assaulting six of his students over a two-year period from 2015 to 2017.

The families have chosen to remain anonymous.  They allege that the assault actually began as far back as 2013, and since 2014, there had been multiple reports of Fernandez acting suspiciously around the children.  The families believe there was enough evidence for the school to protect the students and terminate the teacher, but that they failed to act appropriately.

In 2014, a neighbor living across from the school said they saw Fernandez playing with students during recess in an “inappropriate manner,” the lawsuit alleges.  Yet, the school did not investigate the allegation.  Staff members, according to the lawsuit, also saw Fernandez taking children into the school’s basement alone and locking the door, and parents had complained to administrators about the excessive number of emails Fernandez sent to their students.

Principal Cristina Encinas and LAMB Executive Director Diana Cottman failed to inform the families about the full scope of the allegations against the teacher.  Encinas, Cottman and Fernandez are all named in the case.

A spokesperson for the school, Dawn Arteaga, stated, “We hope to work toward a just resolution of all claims.  The board has been working diligently to do everything in their power to ensure that LAMB will continue to be a top-performing Tier 1 school for many years to come.”  The school is one of the most highly regarded in the district, with 462 students enrolled in preschool through fifth grade and nearly 1,200 students on a waiting list to get in.

The school suspended Fernandez in 2015 while police began to look into the matter, but when authorities found no wrongdoing, LAMB officials reinstated him.  He remained the teacher of the students in the lawsuit until they graduated from fifth grade, and he was allowed to chaperone them on field trips, where their families allege the school further failed to protect their children and the abuse continued.

Fernandez came under investigation again in 2017 after the children involved in the lawsuit directly told their parents about their experiences.  Although the families state they did not know about the abuse until then, one family said their child had displayed signs of trauma since 2013.  “Minor 1 began exhibiting unusual behavior, including, but not limited to, becoming upset, suffering from an eye twitch, having trouble sleeping, waking up agitated, and being afraid of being alone in Minor 1’s basement, taking a shower or going to the bathroom alone,” the statement read. “Minor 1 also began suffering from anxiety, having trouble breathing and was sad and despondent.”

Encinas left the school in December after an internal investigation and Cottman is expected to step down from her post by the end of this school year.

Sources:

Families sue a top-ranked D.C. school over handling of sexually abusive teacher

Ex-teacher charged with child sex abuse was subject of previous D.C. investigation