Sexual abuse lawsuit against San Francisco Unified School District settled over 2004-2005 claim involving a former Lowell High School teacher and counselor

The law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard reports that the San Francisco Unified School District has settled a childhood sexual abuse lawsuit for $1.5 million. The lawsuit alleged that the District failed to supervise former Lowell High School teacher and counselor Harlan Edelman, which led to the sexual abuse of a young male student during the 2004-2005 school year.

The lawsuit alleged that Edelman started "grooming" the former student, named as John Doe in the lawsuit, to gain his trust, posing as someone helping the student improve his grades. The complaint claimed that school officials ignored Edelman's conduct, and that Edelman was able to abuse the former student on the Lowell High School campus, including in his office and classroom.

During the litigation it came to light that another student had come forward and reported that she had been sexually assaulted during the same school year by another counselor and that Edelman had helped cover up for that counselor. Despite the student and the parents reporting the sexual assault, school officials did not take appropriate action.

That failure, according to attorney Lauren Cerri, gave Edelman carte blanche to continue abusing the plaintiff in this case. “School officials admitted that they felt there was no reason to supervise any of the counselors more closely,” Cerri said. “Had they done so, most likely Edelman’s abuse of my client would have been detected and stopped.”

In late 2008, John Doe began seeking treatment to address the effects of the abuse, revealing for the first time what had happened to him. "Given the impact this has had on my life, I wish there were a way I could go back in time and have forced the school district to prevent my abuse from happening in the first place," Doe stated.

After his time at Lowell High School, Edelman taught at the SFUSD Academy of Arts and Sciences and worked for the San Francisco Unified School District until he resigned in September 2013.

In 2014, Edelman was arrested during a sting operation by Mountain View police, who posed as a 17-year-old boy on a gay website. Edelman arranged a meeting for sexual purposes, pleaded guilty, and was convicted of knowingly distributing and/or sending harmful material depicting a minor engaged in sexual conduct with the intent to arouse or appeal to sexual desires or for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts. Following news coverage of the case, John Doe came forward and shared his story at Lowell with Mountain View police. “It was hard to tell my story to MVPD and then again for my case, but litigation was one of the last ways I thought that I could be seriously heard,” Doe said.

Earlier last year, Cerri settled two additional sexual abuse cases for $4.5 million against the District. Those cases involved former George Washington High School athletic director Lawrence Young-Yet Chan.

“We hope that by bringing attention to the harm suffered years ago by victims of childhood sexual abuse, school districts throughout California will recognize the life-long harm they inflict when they choose to protect educators and the district’s reputation over the safety of students,” Cerri said. “I’m disheartened that the school district avoids true accountability by relying on liability insurance to address cases like mine, instead of focusing on preventing harm from happening in the first place. Still, I’m inspired by the Lowell students who have bravely spoken out and organized for change. Their activism-like the #MeToo walkouts-shows the power of collective action to demand accountability and work toward a safer environment for everyone” Doe said. “Thank you for your voices. We were never alone.”

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