Public Schools Need Fear No Scandal, California Catholic Daily, August 23, 2007

Public Schools Need Fear No Scandal
State Supreme Court Rules That a California Law That Opened the Floodgate for Sexual Abuse Lawsuits against Catholic Dioceses Does Not Apply to Public Entities

California Catholic Daily
August 23, 2007

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=4d93d0e5-8db4-46ca-8ca4-f5d2e13b8c7f

California — Though a 2002 change to California law extended the time for filing sexual abuse civil lawsuits against entities such as the Catholic Church, it does not apply to public agencies, such as school districts, the California Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

In a lawsuit against the Vista school district, a 45-year old woman claimed that a former teacher, Jeffrey Paul Jones, engaged in sex with her 200 times over an 18-month period, beginning in 1978. She was 15 and Jones, 30. Jones does not deny having had a relationship with the woman, though he says she "overstated" her allegations. The woman, who did not report the alleged sexual misconduct until 2001, claims school district officials knew or should have known about the misconduct.

Because the woman had not filed her claim with the district sometime in 1980, as required by state law, a superior court judge dismissed her lawsuit in 2003. But a San Diego appeals court overturned the superior court's decision, based on the 2002 California law. The state Supreme Court, however, said the 2002 law allowed the filing of old claims if they were barred solely by the statute of limitations. But, said the court, a state statute governing public entities provides, beyond the statute of limitations, another bar, which the 2002 law did not remove – namely, a requirement that a claim against the school district be filed within 100 days of the cause of the complaint. The plaintiff did not do this and so could not file a lawsuit against the Vista school district under the 2002 law, said the Supreme Court,

Before the Supreme Court came down on the side of the superior court decision, representatives of school districts said both in court papers and in interviews they feared public entities could be subjected to sexual abuse lawsuits like those filed against the Catholic Church. After the Supreme Court's decision, Jack Sleeth, Vista school district's attorney, said "it establishes that the law is settled and we're not going to have 30-year old cases," reported the Aug. 21 North County Times.

Because of this decision, "There are a lot of governmental entities that are going to escape responsibility for what was done," said San Diego sexual abuse victims' attorney, Irwin Zalkin, who had filed an amicus curiae brief in the case against the school district. In response to the ruling, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests issued a statement decrying statutes of limitation in sexual abuse cases, whether or not the perpetrators are clergymen.