Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Sexual Abuse Claims

The Los Angeles Unified School District is the second-largest school district in the country, and it has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to survivors of sexual abuse by its employees. If you were abused by a teacher, aide, coach, or other LAUSD employee, at any time, you may have a claim against the district. Here is the public record, and what it means for you.

Miramonte Elementary

In January 2012, Miramonte Elementary teacher Mark Berndt was arrested over conduct involving his students that went back years. In 2013 he pleaded no contest to 23 counts of lewd conduct upon a child and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. LAUSD paid about $30 million in 2013 to settle the first group of claims and $139.25 million in November 2014 to resolve the remaining cases, about $169 million combined, the largest abuse settlement in the district’s history at the time. In January 2024, LAUSD settled with two additional Miramonte plaintiffs for a combined $3.55 million, more than a decade after the arrest.

De La Torre and Telfair Avenue Elementary

In May 2016, LAUSD agreed to pay $88 million to settle 30 cases involving two other elementary school teachers: 18 cases from George De La Torre Jr. Elementary in Wilmington, where the teacher pleaded no contest to four counts and was sentenced to 12 years, and 12 cases from Telfair Avenue Elementary in Pacoima, where the teacher pleaded no contest to 12 counts and was sentenced to 25 years. In January 2020 the district paid $18.4 million more to nine additional former students from the same two schools. By then, NBC Los Angeles reported, the district’s payouts in teacher sexual abuse litigation exceeded $300 million.

The AB 218 claims

When AB 218, signed in October 2019, reopened the courthouse to adult survivors, claims against LAUSD for abuse going back decades followed. In June 2025 the Board of Education authorized up to $500 million in judgment obligation bonds, which do not require voter approval, to pay settlements of those claims. A district spokesperson said the claims settled that fiscal year were valued at roughly $302 million; the district has no insurance for them, and a board member said more borrowing would likely be needed for the claims still pending. The district has not disclosed how many claims remain.

What these cases have in common

In the cases that have become public, the warning signs were visible on campus long before an arrest: complaints from students and parents that went nowhere, colleagues who noticed and said nothing, and administrators who treated a report as a personnel matter instead of a crime. Those facts, found in the district’s own files, are what turn an abuser’s crime into the district’s responsibility.

Why the district is responsible

The district is responsible when the adults in charge knew, or should have known, that an employee was a danger to students and did not act: a principal who got a complaint and did nothing, a teacher who saw something and did not report it, a district that hired someone without checking. Those failures are what a case is built on. If you are 40 or older and the abuse happened before 2024, a 2026 law also requires stronger proof against a public school district: clear and convincing evidence that the district actually knew of the misconduct and failed to act. How a claim against a school district works.

Is it too late?

Probably not. If the abuse happened before 2024, you can usually file until you turn 40, or within a few years of realizing as an adult that the abuse caused harm you are living with now (that window is five years today; a law signed in 2026 shortens it to three years starting January 1, 2027). If the abuse happened on or after January 1, 2024, there is no deadline at all. You do not have to file a government claim first. More on deadlines.

Who may have a claim

Anyone abused as a student by an LAUSD employee or volunteer, at any school in the district, including charter schools operating on district campuses, after-school programs, and athletics. Abuse that took place in the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s can still support a claim under the rules above. Adults who were told years ago that it was too late should ask again.

Talk to us

If you or your child was abused by an employee of this district, call 877-428-4544 any time. The conversation is private and free, cases are filed under a Doe name, and there is no attorney fee and no costs unless we recover.

The cases described on this page are drawn from court records and news reports. They are not our cases, and past results do not predict the outcome of any claim. This page is general information as of October 2026, not legal advice.