No parent can imagine the horrific disclosure that their child has been the victim of sexual abuse by a teacher, administrator, coach, volunteer, counselor or trusted adult. The sad reality is every day across the country, millions of children head off to school with their parents never giving a second thought to the dangers they could face. Parents entrust these educators with their children and expect them to provide leadership and education, never imagining their vulnerable children could be faced with such devastating abuse.
Both state and federal law require school employees and officials to exercise the highest degree of care in supervising children. However due to negligence, denial, understaffing, poor training, tight budgets, lack of recognition of signs of abuse, insufficient policies, and just plain ignorance, children often fall victim to abuse.
In our experience, a child is typically not molested in school without warning. Sexual predators know how to “groom” their victim, gain the trust of the child and the parents, perpetrate the sexual abuse, and go about their every day lives unnoticed. School age children of all grades and levels can become victims.
The difficult part in these abuse cases is meeting the high standard required to hold schools liable for abuse by their employee. However, the attorneys at McGonagle Spencer Johnson, P.C. have provided representation to young children who were the victims of this type of abuse and recovered significant compensation. We are familiar with the difficulty, extensive time required, and intricacies of litigating these cases. We are prepared to protect the legal rights of these innocent children.
We recognize that reliving the experiences a victim endured can create further trauma, and we take pride in our sensitive handling of these cases. The victim’s rights are at the forefront of every step we take in these cases. Through our extensive experience with this type of abuse, we have gained valuable insight into understanding the suffering associated with child sexual abuse and we know how to litigate these cases gently and effectively.