We filed a civil rights action in the Federal Court of the Western District of Pennsylvania against the Upper St. Clair School District and a number of its administrators for their actions relating to the sexual assault of one of their students. We represented an Upper St. Clair family and their daughter, a student at Upper St. Clair High School. Our client was sexually assaulted in the stairwell of the Upper St. Clair High School, during after school hours, by a fellow student.
The school district vigorously contested the lawsuit at all stages. We were successfully able to overcome and defeat Motions to Dismiss and for Summary Judgment filed by the Defendants that would have terminated our client's case. Having overcome those obstacles, a settlement in an amount of $325,000 was reached with the insurance company for the Upper School District only weeks before the case was scheduled for trial. Because the school district is considered a governmental entity under Federal and Pennsylvania law, the school district could not require that the amount of the settlement be confidential. However, pursuant to the settlement agreement, we are precluded from publishing the specific facts underlying the case. As our client was a minor when the assault occurred, the civil lawsuit was filed with the use of pseudonyms and our client's name has been withheld to protect her privacy.
