A Dallas, Texas jury has awarded $9.2 million to a teen who was forced to leave a religious school after her sexual affair with a male teacher was made public.
The girl was 16 and the teacher was 34 when police found them in a car together in 2009. Her parents sued the school, saying that they did not do enough to protect the student from the teacher. The teacher resigned and faces criminal charges, but the student was forced to move to another school, where she later graduated.
Child abuse is an insidious type of crime where the victims are, for
many reasons unable to, or are fearful of confronting or reporting the
perpetrator to authorities. Instead of protecting her, as teachers are expected to do, he robbed
this child of her innocence. Children are
vulnerable and deserve our protection from those who would take such
wicked advantage of them.
