Student raped by teacher gets $65m from school
A former US high school student who was repeatedly raped by her former teacher has been awarded $65 million in damages.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2014, accuses a school board in Florida of neglect in failing to protect the student from teacher Bresnniel Jansen Mones.
The lawsuit also alleges Mones had a known history of improper behaviour, The Miami Herald reports.
Mones pleaded guilty to three counts of having sex with a minor and two counts of sending her lewd texts after already being found liable by default.
According to court documents, the damages break down to: $13,906 ($AU 18,000) for the past medical expenses for the young woman, known as CRR; $255,000 ($AU 337,078) for her future medical expenses; $4 million ($AU 5.2 million) for past mental anguish, pain and suffering; $15 million ($AU 19.8 million) for future mental anguish, pain and suffering; $30 million ($AU $39.6 million) in punitive damages.
A release from Leighton Law, the firm of CRR’s damages trial attorneys John Leighton and Max Panoff, says the discovery phase revealed “CRR was not the only student Jansen tried this with".
"At least one other young student was approached and was engaged in a texting relationship with Jansen attempting to groom and escalate the relationship.
"The girl’s parents found out, terminated it, and alerted the school. Jansen was the subject of an investigation, which found that he made inappropriate contact with the student. But he was not disciplined.”
The lawsuit says Mones sent text messages to her in 2013 that went from about school to about sex, including photos of his genitals.
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It's then alleged Mones later forced oral sex on CRR and had intercourse with her on his desk in December 2013.
She transferred to Varela High School only to find Mones lived across the street.
Mones served six months in jail. His original 10-year probation period has already been reduced to eight.
He lives in South Miami-Dade as a registered sex offender.
