In order to resolve allegations that three former pupils were sexually assaulted by their Langdon Avenue Elementary School teacher on several times while the school was in session in 2006 and 2007, the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District has decided to pay $24 million to the victims.
The settlement ends a lawsuit alleging that school administrators disregarded reports that instructor David Ostovich had acted inappropriately years prior to his alleged molestation of the girls at Langdon, who were 8 and 9 years old.
Ostovich was unavailable for comment. He refuted any misconduct in court documents.
Numerous administrators, teachers, parents, and students at Germain Elementary School complained to Ostovich about his inappropriate behavior with young girls, according to the lawsuit.
After leaving that school, Ostovich found employment at Langdon in the San Fernando Valley suburb of North Hills. Court papers indicate that Langdon administrators were never informed about those earlier allegations by L.A. Unified administrators.
The instructor at Langdon Elementary received multiple reprimands but was nevertheless permitted to continue instructing fourth and then first grade. The lawsuit claims he sexually assaulted two of the plaintiffs in 2006–2007. He allegedly assaulted the third plaintiff when he took over a first-grade class the next year, according to the lawsuit. All three girls are now adults in their early to mid-20s, having been identified in the lawsuit under Jane Doe pseudonyms.
Plaintiffs’ attorney David Ring described it as a classic case of “passing the trash,” where a teacher is permitted to quietly transfer to a another school in spite of numerous complaints about unsuitable behavior with pupils.
“This is an outrageous case that highlights LAUSD’s systemic failure to protect children from known child molesters,” Ring stated in a recent interview. “These three women’s lives were permanently changed by the abuse they suffered. If LAUSD had only done its job, it might have been completely avoided.
Before the teacher was fired, Ring indicated that over 20 complaints had been made regarding his behavior.
Since two of his daughters were students at Germain, Ostovich had initially started volunteering there. After that, he worked as a special education aide. In 2003, someone complained that he was sitting with a female on his lap and his hand in her back pocket.
In 2004, he received a warning from school administration about his behavior after it was reported that he was groping, stroking, and stroking girls. According to court documents in the litigation, he received the principal’s award and his teaching credential in 2004–2005 notwithstanding the reprimand.
According to court documents in the case, a young teacher who saw Ostovich’s ongoing inappropriate behavior prevented him from being hired at the school; nevertheless, because the principal never recorded it in writing, Ostovich was able to get employment at Langdon.
The lawsuit claims that in 2006 and 2007, Ostovich, a teacher of fourth graders in his late 40s, started to groom the girls and eventually molested them. According to the lawsuit, he would regularly invite young girls to stay with him at lunch and recess in his classroom behind closed doors. In addition to abusing them sexually, the lawsuit claims he would touch, rub, and improperly hug the children.
One of the girls said in a deposition that he forced her to stay in his classroom for lunch and that he sexually assaulted her. She said in court filings that even during class, he approached her desk, made her sit on his lap, and molested her in ways that her classmates could see were abusive.
He was later transferred by the school to teach first grade. A parent had complained to Leah Perroti, the new principle of Langdon, in July 2007 about Ostovich “touching” girls. Ostovich was issued a written reprimand and informed that a child abuse report would be filed if another claim was made against him.
According to the lawsuit, Perroti filed a Suspected Child Abuse Report on him after seeing girls on his lap, cuddling with him alone, despite the warning. His expulsion from the classroom occurred in December 2007. The following year, Perroti was made aware of the charges of sexual abuse, and an inquiry was carried out by Los Angeles police. according to court documents.
Following his criminal charges in February 2009, Ostovich entered a plea of not guilty to two counts of battery involving his two victims who were in fourth grade. The state body for teaching credentials later canceled his teaching credential.
The district was sued by the three women in 2021. The senior administrator of L.A. Unified, who is currently the superintendent of Manhattan Beach, admitted in a deposition that after each of the Germain episodes, school administrators ought to have reported suspected child abuse.