California school district pays $10 million over bus driver who sexually abused girl

Lucia Mar Unified School District paid $10 million to the family of a 9-year-old special needs girl who was repeatedly sexually abused by a district bus driver in 2017, according to a news release from the family’s attorney.

David Lamb pleaded no contest to sexually abusing the girl and was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2019. The abuse took place over a period of about four months in 2017.

The lawsuit alleged Lucia Mar was negligent and failed to protect the girl from harm.

The district vehemently denied this claim during four years of litigation.

Lamb had a previous conviction for peeping that he omitted on his job application in 2012. After being caught lying about the conviction, Lamb was still able to submit a second application and was then hired.

Records show two educators also wrote letters to a district official reporting a second special education student from Lamb’s route was showing possible signs of trauma, but it is unclear how the district responded, according to previous Tribune reporting.

The $10 million settlement is believed to be the largest individual settlement ever paid to a single victim of sexual abuse in California, the news release said.

“The Lucia Mar Unified School District is deeply saddened that our student endured this abuse by Mr. Lamb. His behavior violated our trust and our student safety protocols. We do not tolerate abuse and we condemn the actions of David Lamb,” Amy Jacobs, spokesperson for the district, wrote in an emailed statement to The Tribune. “We are hopeful that after five years, both the settlement and the conviction foster the healing process for the victim and our schools. This incident has prompted us to reexamine our safety standards, reporting procedures, and staff training to prevent this type of unacceptable, egregious behavior from happening again.”

Girl alone on bus with abuser

The girl was attending Shell Beach Elementary School during the 2016-17 school year, according to court documents. She was 9 years old at the time.

A bus that drove other students in the special education program would drive her to Shell Beach Elementary, and there would also be a designated aide that sat with students during the bus ride.

During the first half of the school year, the girl was transferred to Chris Jesperson School in San Luis Obispo. The girl then had to get on a new bus driven by Lamb.

The girl was the only student on the bus for the majority of the ride, without an aide.

According to court documents, Lamb immediately began to engage with the girl by showing her violent and scary videos on his phone. The girl told her parents about it in March 2017 and her father confronted Lamb and told him to stop showing her the videos.

On April 6, 2017, Lamb made a stop off of his route in a rural location for more than 10 minutes and was noted by the GPS tracking system on the bus, court documents said.

Security footage the following day showed Lamb engaging in “disturbing behavior” with the girl on board. The footage showed him parking the bus in a secluded location, looking around “as if he were worried about someone observing what was happening,” and switching seats to be out of the security camera’s view.

When the girl switches seats on the bus, security footage partially shows Lamb “engaging in strange body movements.”

On April 10, 2017, the girl told her parents Lamb was showing her videos of “naked people” and that he “touched her private areas.” The girl also told employees at Chris Jesperson school that Lamb was showing her inappropriate videos.

The girl’s parents called the supervisor for transportation for Lucia Mar to report what their daughter had told them about Lamb, and the supervisor told them they would investigate the allegations and look at security tapes, court documents said.

The supervisor told the parents that she did not see Lamb engage in inappropriate behavior on the security footage — including the footage on April 7, 2017.

The complaint said the supervisor either did not fully review the tapes or saw the disturbing footage and chose to conceal it and not report it to law enforcement “to protect LMUSD and Lamb from scrutiny and bad publicity.”

The bus GPS shows that Lamb deviated from his route and stopped in the same rural location at least eight times after the April allegation. On May 18, 2017, the girl told her parents that Lamb abused her numerous times on the bus and told her if she told anyone he would “do something bad” to her.

Her parents reported the abuse to the supervisor and were told she would conduct another investigation. After not hearing anything from the supervisor, they reported it to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, which was provided bus tracking information quickly by Lucia Mar.

On June 7, 2017, Lamb admitted to sheriff’s deputies he had been sexually abusing the girl and was arrested.

Lucia Mar covered up abuse, complaint says

The lawsuit claims the supervisor was close friends with Lamb and told him she would hide the footage of Lamb sexually assaulting the girl. Court documents also claim the supervisor and Lamb agreed to call the girl “manipulative” and say the allegations were made up.

The supervisor did not report this abuse to law enforcement despite being a mandated reporter, court documents said.

When the girl’s parents reported the abuse for the second time in May 2017, the supervisor “looked them directly in the eye” and said “I don’t believe you.”

In interviews with the Sheriff’s Office, the supervisor said the girl was “manipulative” and being coached by her parents to say Lamb was sexually abusing her. She also said security footage from Lamb’s bus at the time of the abuse was wiped or recorded over, despite that not being true.

The Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant to the supervisor, which is when she “discovered” a hard drive with the April 7 footage on her desk.

Four years of litigation

The case was filed in 2018 and was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and court backlogs. The settlement was conditionally reached on April 20 and finalized on May 20.

Throughout the years of litigation, Lucia Mar pushed back and denied wrong-doing repeatedly. The district also wanted the girl to undergo multiple psychological tests to evaluate her competency and ability to give an accurate deposition. The district, along with the Sheriff’s Office, also opposed releasing to the family the sheriff’s investigative file into the abuse.

“The District failed to protect this vulnerable young girl from its predator bus driver who should never have been hired in the first instance because of his criminal record,” David Ring, the lead attorney on the case, said in the release. “Once hired, the District failed to properly supervise him even after receiving complaints about his suspicious behavior while driving the bus.”