Forced to sit in urine-soaked clothes
A judge has approved a $350,000 settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of a boy, now 13, who was allegedly forced to wear a trash bag and sit in urine-soaked clothes after his third-grade teacher would not excuse him to use a restroom.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lynne M. Hobbs finalized the accord after the plaintiff’s attorneys corrected deficiencies the judge cited in the petition during previous hearings. The boy, who is identified in court papers only as K.D., will receive just under $212,800 after attorneys’ fees and other expenses are deducted.
A judge’s consent to the settlement was necessary because of the boy’s age.
According to the suit, a teacher at Manhattan Place Elementary School in South Los Angeles would not permit the boy, then 8 years old, to use a restroom when he requested to do so in November 2018. When the boy said he could not wait to go to the restroom, the teacher allegedly told him he could urinate in a garbage can at the front of class.
The Los Angeles Unified School District knew the teacher was unfit to teach students due to his “erratic and threatening behavior that was well-documented and getting worse,” the boy’s attorneys state in their court papers.
A faculty member instructed the boy to wear garbage bags to cover his urine-soaked clothes, according to the suit.
“Instead of providing K.D. with any additional assistance or calling his parents, K.D. walked around school for the rest of the day in urine-soaked clothing,” the suit stated.
In March 2019, K.D.’s substitute teacher refused to allow the boy to leave to use a bathroom and when K.D. insisted, the teacher told him not to return if he left the classroom, the suit states.
The boy had no choice but to use the restroom and when he returned to the classroom the door was locked, according to the suit.
K.D. was later transferred out of Manhattan Place Elementary School, but he continues to experience bullying and a hostile environment and his grades have declined, according to the negligence suit filed in October 2019.
A psychologist who interviewed the plaintiff in December 2020 found that the child suffers from chronic sadness, nightmares, panic attacks, loss of trust in others, thoughts of self-harm, anger and feelings of worthlessness, according to the boy’s attorneys’ court papers.
However, the South Los Angeles boy’s grades have improved to a “B” average, he plays the trombone and is learning to play the clarinet, according to the court papers. The plaintiff has also become more social and shown an interest in various activities, including basketball, and his family hopes he can put what happened in the past, his lawyers further stated.
