A lawsuit filed by the devastated mother of a mentally disabled teenage girl alleging that she was gang-raped by her high school classmates inside a Starbucks bathroom in Pittsburgh.
In October 2022, three male students at Taylor Alderdice High School took the 15-year-old victim off campus and into a major coffee shop, where they took turns sexually assaulting her.
The boys then took her to a vacant building, where one of them continued to assault her, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Allegheny County Civil Court.
“Pittsburgh Public Schools knew my client needed a safe environment to go to and from school and failed to create one,” family attorney Alec Wright told The Associated Press. Told.
The lawsuit also names the vacant building's management company, 101 Kappa Drive Associates #1.
The names of the woman and her daughter were withheld from the lawsuit to protect the girl's identity.
“Starbucks and Kappa failed to protect my client from the violence of others, even though they knew their business was causing criminal activity. The painful result was her sexual assault. “It was,” Wright said.
Starbucks employees saw the boy enter the restroom with the girl but did not intervene, the lawsuit alleges.
The girl was initially unable to tell what had happened to her, but a few days later her mother found her daughter crying because of rumors that three male students had sex with her. He said he was contacted by the school to say that he had been.
She said she took the girl for a medical checkup and noticed signs of sexual assault, so she called the police, but more than a year later, no charges have been filed.
“When we learned of these allegations, we acted with great urgency to assist law enforcement throughout the investigation,” a Starbucks representative told The Associated Press in a statement.
A police spokesperson told the station that the district attorney's office has decided not to file charges and the case is closed, but a representative for the public school system said the school district is not aware of any pending litigation. said he had no comment.
Mr. Kappa could not be reached for comment. Messages from real estate companies handling rental properties for some of the properties were not immediately available.
The lawsuit alleges that Starbucks and Kappa failed to address well-publicized criminal issues, including failing to develop policies, train employees, and provide safety measures to protect the safety of patrons. He claims that he failed to do so.
The girl's IQ was found to be around 65, but a second test showed it was below 60, placing her in the bottom 1% of students in terms of intellectual ability, the application states.
During her first few months at the school, she claims she was left unsupervised and allowed to wander the hallways and hide in the bathroom during class.
“It just makes me angry to know that there was so little supervision and protection for my daughter. If she's leaving in the morning to go to school, she should be able to get home from school safely,” her mother told The Associated Press. .
“Taylor Alderdice lured her off campus and Starbucks had her assaulted in the bathroom. It's all so frustrating and discouraging. It's so hard to explain,” she said. added.
student told KDKA-TV Starbucks has banned sitting inside its stores during school hours.
“We hope that eventually the bus stop will be moved,” Derek Green, owner of Bender Bender, told the publication.
with post wire
