Former Student Sues Teacher, School District for Molestation

LOS ANGELES, CA - A young woman who alleges she was molested by her chemistry teacher while she was a student at a Hacienda Heights high school is suing the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of the woman, identified in court papers as Janet Roe, also names the teacher, David Park, and Los Altos High School principal Cheli McReynolds as defendants.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges negligence and battery and seeks unspecified damages.

An HLPUSD representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The lawsuit alleges the plaintiff, now 20, was sexually abused by Park repeatedly from August 2010 until August 2012.

The suit further alleges McReynolds and the district were negligent in supervising Park, who pleaded guilty in Pomona Superior Court last October to charges of committing lewd acts on a child and oral copulation of a person under 16.

The Chino Hills resident admitted to molesting one former student in 2014 and another in 2011. Both girls were 15 years old when Park began molesting them.

Two months after his guilty plea, Park was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to register for life as a sex offender.

--City News Service, photo via Shutterstock