Our lawyers can help if your child was sexually abused at school and you plan to file a lawsuit. Not only can we investigate your child’s abuse, get evidence, and build a strong claim, but we can also give your family the necessary support and guidance throughout the entire case.
If your child discloses sexual abuse to you, report it to the school immediately. You may also file a police report. Have medical professionals assess your child and look for common injuries and signs of sexual abuse. Then, please contact our lawyers, and we can explain what filing lawsuits entails. While you focus on your child’s mental and emotional well-being, we can focus on preparing the lawsuit, which involves documenting damages from sexual abuse at school.
Call Rice Law at (410) 694-7291 to discuss your case for free with our Maryland sexual abuse lawyers.
What Should I Do if My Child is Sexually Abused at School?
How you handle your child disclosing their sexual abuse at school may ultimately help them get justice for that abuse. We help parents take the right steps in these situations so they file successful claims.
Report the Abuse
You should report the abuse to the school as soon as possible. You should also involve the police so law enforcement can perform its own investigation. A criminal case would be separate from any civil case our lawyers handle, but our Maryland sexual abuse lawyers may glean information from law enforcement’s investigation.
Each situation is unique, and some parents may also feel compelled to temporarily remove their children from a specific school until the case is resolved. Do what is best for your child’s physical and emotional safety and your family’s healing.
Know the Details
If your child discloses to you that they are being sexually abused at school, you need to know more about what happened. Therapists can help child victims feel safe enough to give more details, such as who was abusing them, when the abuse began, where in the school the abuse took place, and the exact nature of the abuse.
Your child needs mental health support after disclosing abuse, so focus on getting them that care. Mental health experts who evaluate and help your child may also testify if a lawsuit goes to trial, supporting your child’s claims of abuse and their need for damages.
Get Medical Intervention
Sexual abuse often leaves victims with physical injuries, especially children. Take your child for an assessment, and physicians can document injuries and any signs of abuse.
Contact Our Lawyers
You can also contact our lawyers after learning of your child being sexually abused at school. We can help you report and document the abuse and advocate for your child against a negligent school and abusive environment.
While you focus on your child’s emotional, mental, and physical well-being, we can focus on building a sexual abuse case that gets them justice.
We can use a lawsuit to get internal investigation reports from the school, learn more about its hiring practices and if it adequately screened the employee who abused your child, and determine whether or not previous reports against the abuser went uninvestigated.
Can I File a Lawsuit if My Child is Sexually Abused at School in Maryland?
Most likely, you can file a lawsuit on your minor child’s behalf if they have been sexually abused at school. Lawsuits may involve the individual abuser and the institution that enabled or ignored their behavior, such as the school that employed them.
Your child’s school may be liable for sexual abuse, as it has a duty of care to protect your child from harm. While minors cannot legally file lawsuits themselves until they reach adulthood, their parents may sue in their place to get justice sooner.
Minor victims may also wait until they turn 18 to file a lawsuit. It takes many victims a long time to disclose or identify abuse, and, fortunately, Maryland has no statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse lawsuits.
What to Do if My Child’s Sexual Abuse at School is Not Investigated?
If you report sexual abuse at school to the administration, and the report is not taken seriously, call our lawyers. We can gather copies of reports, correspondence with school administration, and other relevant evidence showing the school did not uphold its duty of care.
If the school employee directly responsible for your child’s sexual abuse is not immediately investigated and removed, it may benefit your lawsuit to switch schools. This also saves your child further emotional, mental, and physical damage and avoids any chance of interaction with the abuser after coming forward.
If you have not yet reported the abuse to law enforcement and the school has failed to investigate, now is the time to do so. We can also initiate our own investigation and may discover past reports that went uninvestigated.
How Do You Document Damages from Childhood Sexual Abuse at a Maryland School?
Parents are understandably focused on their children after they come forward about institutional sexual abuse at school. Rather than also worrying about tracking damages from the abuse, let our lawyers handle that task.
Economic damages from child sexual abuse include medical costs, mental health counseling, and other out-of-pocket expenses. The non-economic damages are almost never-ending, with victims experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other mental health issues at high rates.
We can handle tallying economic damages and can work with mental health experts to quantify your child’s non-economic damages.
Maryland caps non-economic damages for lawsuits against government entities like public schools, and our lawyers can work hard to maximize your recovery. Non-economic damages are also limited in lawsuits against private schools, though typically, more is available from these defendants.
Call Our Lawyers for a Free Case Review in Maryland
Call Rice Law at (410) 694-7291 for a free case analysis from our Baltimore, MD sexual abuse lawyers.