Lucia Mar Unified School District sued for sex abuse of a child

UPDATE 4/10/16:

Attorneys for a nine year old special needs child voiced their disgust and anger at a Lucia Mar bus driver for allegedly molesting the girl early last year.

The Jesperson School student and her family were not at a press conference Tuesday morning as their attorneys announced their lawsuit against the Lucia Mar Unified School District and the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education.

“Mr. Lamb’s conduct is beyond despicable. Four days out of the week she would be the only student on the bus. In fact, [she was] the only person on the bus other than him for at least 20 minutes on the way to and from school. Over the course of four months he made it a habit to stop the bus and sexually abuse her,” said one of the victim’s attorneys Dave Ring.

Attorneys say the bus’s GPS shows Lamb made an unscheduled stop on Via Zacata in Arroyo Grande.

The video from inside the bus shows Lamb appear to tell the girl to move seats to sit behind him out of view of the cameras.

That’s when attorneys say Lamb molested her. The family of the special needs girl pushed for something to be done.

“Lucia Mar received two different complaints at two different times about this bus driver’s misconduct and they blew off the complaints both times. The Office of Education and specifically Jespersen School the administrators received a complaint and blew it off and did nothing,” Ring said.

The San Luis Obispo County Office of Education responded by saying: “The San Luis Obispo County Office of Education considers student safety a top priority. Any complaints, questions or concerns regarding student safety are taken seriously by all employees.”

The family’s attorneys believe if the school had actually reviewed the bus footage this would have never continued to happen.

They hope because of this lawsuit, some sweeping changes will happen including making the bus cameras able to see the entire bus instead of just parts of it.

“What’s depicted in the video is a really small amount of the bus itself. There’s really no good answer or good reason why such a small portion of the bus is actually being shown in the video. Obviously the family wants to know when somebody makes a report, goes to the proper authorities, it’s actually investigated,” said one of the victim’s attorneys, Robert May.

The Lucia Mar School District has released the following statement:

“Since we first became aware of the charges of child sexual abuse by this bus driver we have cooperated very closely with the family and law enforcement as the investigation moved forward. Student safety is a high priority in our district and we are deeply concerned about the potential impact of these actions on the child. Please understand that personnel, student privacy and due process laws preclude us from commenting further on the specifics of this case.” – Raynee Daley, Superintendent Lucia Mar Unified School District

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A lawsuit against Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD) has been filed by the parents of a girl who is currently 10-years old. They claim that David Lamb sexually abused their daughter and the school district refused to act appropriately.

The 16-page lawsuit describes how Lamb repeatedly sexually abused the special needs student identified only as Jane Doe on a school bus in 2017. The document says Jane Doe was a student at Shell Beach Elementary, but at some point during the 2017 school year, the district decided Jane Doe needed to attend Chris Jesperson School.

The court documents obtained by NewsChannel three describe how the transfer meant that Jane Doe would be traveling alone with the David Lamb, the bus driver. It was during a trip in April that Jane Doe’s parents claim Lamb “deviated from his normal route,” parked the school bus in a “hidden” location and showed her videos with “naked people” and that Lamb “touched her private area.”

The lawsuit claims that Jane Doe’s parents requested that the district’s supervisor investigate Lamb. According to the lawsuit, the district cleared Lamb and put him back on the bus route, where he proceeded to molest Jane Doe many more times.

The parents complained a second time. This time to the administrators at Jesperson School. According to the lawsuit, the school did nothing. The parents then went to the SLO Sheriff Department, which conducted an investigation that led to the arrest of Lamb for several felonies related to child abuse. Lamb has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of sexual abuse. The civil suit seeks to recover damages for the harm done to Jane Doe.

The parent’s attorneys, Dave Ring with the law firm Taylor & Ring, will hold a press conference on Tuesday, April 10. The press conference will give a timeline of the abuse, incriminating statements made by Lamb to the San Luis Obispo Sheriff, photos and the bus video which shows the abuse on camera, as well as interviews with the victim’s attorneys.

NewsChannel 3 has reached out for a comment from the Lucia Mar School District but has not heard back.