Just a month after the Moreno Valley Unified School District reached a $27 million settlement in the bullying death of a middle school student, a jury has now awarded two former students $135 million after their sexual assault at the hands of a teacher.
The crimes happened nearly 30 years ago, but Justin McGregor and Brady Blair say they are still suffering to this day. Both were molested as children by Thomas Lee West.
"I struggle in my relationships. I struggle on a daily basis with symptoms of PTSD. There's a lot of events that are quite triggering for me,” McGregor said in an interview with NBC4.
West was a teacher at Vista Heights Middle School in Moreno Valley when McGregor and Blair were in sixth grade between 1996 and 1997.
The abuse continued through their sophomore year in high school, but when they turned 17, they reported West to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. In 2006, West was convicted on multiple counts of child molestation and sentenced to 52 years.
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"After dealing with the criminal trial, one might imagine is very difficult for a 17-year-old, they kind of buried it down, didn't want to talk about it again. They both really struggled for decades,” said attorney Spencer Lucas.
In 2020, a new law passed that allowed survivors of child sexual abuse to come forward and file claims.
After filing a lawsuit for negligence against the Moreno Valley Unified School District, on Tuesday a jury found the district 90% at fault and West 10% at fault.
"For the past 27 years, the school district has failed to accept any responsibility for allowing West to continue teaching, even though they knew multiple complaints of child sexual molestation dating back to the 80s and early 90s before these two young boys were in Mr. West's class,” Lucas said.
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The district is responsible for about $120 million of the jury’s award. The district released a statement saying it deeply regrets what happened to the former students and is weighing how to move forward because its insurance policy will only cover a small portion of that money.
McGregor, meanwhile, says the verdict isn't only a win for him and Blair but also a sign of hope that will “give some strength to other survivors of sexual abuse.”
