In the early 1990s, rumors traveled through the halls of Pomona High School that a group of coaches were plying young cheerleaders and track stars with weed and alcohol in their offices, and sexually abusing them on and off campus. The coaches drove them around in their cars, took them to parties and treated them like girlfriends.
Those are the accusations of eight Southern California women who filed lawsuits against the Pomona Unified School District and those coaches over the past three years. Last week, for the first time, a jury ruled that one of the women deserves $35 million.
What the eight women say happened back then is slowly unfolding in court. To protect their privacy, all but one of the women are identified in court records as “Jane Doe.”
The women are mostly in their 40s now. They graduated high school more than two decades ago. Jane Doe #4 – who was awarded the $35 million – dropped out of high school before graduation, returning more than a decade later to get her GED.
Some of the women now have children who are in high school themselves. According to her attorney, Jane Doe #4’s daughter has expressed interest in track and field, giving her mother tremendous anxiety.
Four more women are still awaiting the resolution of their cases. Three others have quietly settled.
The lengthy lawsuits filed for each of the then-students allege that a group of coaches committed rampant sexual abuse at the school in the mid-1990s. The coaches were young men, mostly in their 20s and 30s.
The suits are the result of Assembly Bill 218, which passed in 2019 and provided a three-year window for anyone alleging they were a victim of sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits and claim damages. The Archdiocese of San Francisco filed for bankruptcy after several hundred lawsuits were filed under the bill.
No criminal charges were ever filed in any of the Pomona cases.
“Not coming forward is not unusual, and that’s why the statute of limitations (for the…
Read the full article here
