24 Trial Lawyer • Summer 2022 oral arguments were conducted, and in the end, most of the claims were dismissed. We appealed. That case is still at the Court of Appeals, oral argument was early October 2021, and so far, no decision. While the case was starting to work its way through the justice system, I was contacted by a television reporter doing a series on violence in the classrooms who wanted to speak to my clients and hear their side of the story. After much deliberation, we felt that putting forth a few representative clients would be a positive way to publicize their plight. In conjunction with my male client in Beaverton, who was digitally anally raped by a student, my PPS clients found themselves front and center of a story that had started to gain some prominence in the media. Part of the motivation to appear on television, which is not something I would ordinarily advise my clients to do, was to put pressure on the districts to settle. Why not settle? Because money was not, and is not, the motivating factor for my clients. They want change. They want a solution to a problem that has become an epidemic across Oregon and the country. It’s a big problem in terms of scale. Change starts with proper funding at the highest levels, appropriate staffing and changes to allocation of funds within some of the largest school districts in the state. We were looking at problems with no easy solutions and realized, in order to make change, we needed voices. We needed parents to put pressure on their elected officials and the school district itself. We needed people who had solutions to these problems to put their minds to work and figure out how to help these students who needed support and protect the educators who show up every day and take abuse none of us would tolerate in any other profession. While a jury can listen to evidence and reach a verdict on just compensation, sometimes clients look to out-of-court settlements as a way to ask for nonmonetary changes that hold value to them. We are still hopeful a Court of Appeals ruling in our favor will move the needle in terms of settlement discussions. While there was short-term exposure in the community, there is so much fatigue around our failing schools and underfunded education in this country, these stories didn’t do much to rile up the population. We were disappointed to be sure, but the fight continues. Not about the students Of paramount importance to every single one of my clients was that the students should not be blamed for the injuries my clients have suffered. They wanted that clear in the legal documents, and they wanted that clear in the media. These students need help. These students are not acting out, they are reaching out through the only means they have. They cannot control their emotions, and most of them have other issues that underly their behaviors. Several of the students who engaged in the behaviors that harmed my clients have been put in other programs including in-patient treatment facilities. After the lawsuit was filed. After the parents were made aware of how bad it was and were able to secure attorneys themselves to finally get the help their child needed. The schools and their amici curiae tried to frame our arguments as blaming the students. They tried to say our clients wanted the schools to do a better job of “discipline” and they obviously could not because they had to provide the “least restrictive environment” for these students. The school districts are attempting to hide behind the idea they can’t properly protect their employees because they have a duty to provide education in the least restrictive environment possible. Classroom Violence Continued from p 23
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