LOS ANGELES – A $24 million settlement has been reached on behalf of three women who alleged they were sexually abused by their elementary school teacher in 2006 and 2007, their attorney announced Wednesday.
The plaintiffs, identified only as Jane Does 1, 2, and 3, had filed separate lawsuits in Los Angeles and Van Nuys Superior Courts in 2021. The women stated that they were 8 to 9 years old when teacher David Ostovich sexually molested them repeatedly in his classroom at Langdon Avenue Elementary School in North Hills.
Prior to the alleged abuses of the plaintiffs, Ostovich worked at Germain Street Elementary School in Chatsworth, where he received dozens of complaints from administrators, teachers, parents and students about his inappropriate behavior with girls before he obtained his job at Langdon Avenue Elementary School, according to the lawsuits.
“This is an outrageous case that highlights LAUSD’s systemic failure to protect children from known child molesters,” plaintiffs’ attorney David Ring said. LAUSD received many complaints about this perpetrator’s interactions with girls, and instead of firing him, they … allowed him to move quietly to another school, where he continued to molest more girls.
In their court papers, LAUSD attorneys maintained the plaintiffs complaints were defective because school districts are not mandated reporters under the law.
