| SPOTLIGHT |
A teenage girl has been awarded £25,000 in compensation after she suffered sexual assault at school by a boy who had been moved from another school where he was under police investigation for similar alleged criminal offences.
In a legal claim against the school, the teenager's parents alleged that proper safeguarding measures were not in place and that only senior staff knew that they boy had been removed from his previous school while under a separate criminal investigation for alleged sexual offences against two girls.
Law firm Leigh Day, who represented the claimant, said it was only after police launched an investigation into the sexual assault on the claimant that the school confirmed the boy was awaiting sentencing for a criminal offence at a previous school.
It later became clear that senior leaders at the second school had been aware of the safeguarding risks of the boy's attendance.
The head of safeguarding told the girl's parents that a specialist risk assessment was in place in relation to the boy. However, the family claimed that only members of the senior leadership team were aware that the assessment was in place.
The school did not admit liability in the ensuing legal claim and, according to Leigh Day, argued that what had happened between the two students was “entirely consensual” activity. Despite this, it agreed to settle the claim and pay compensation.
In their legal claim, the girl's parents cited a 2019 Ofsted report which rated the school as inadequate and stated that trust and school leaders had not fulfilled their statutory duties to ensure that safeguarding arrangements were effective. Potential risks were not identified quickly enough, or adequate action was not taken to reduce them.
Andrew Lord, Senior Solicitor in Leigh Day's abuse claims team who represented the claimant, said: "In this day and age, parents ought to be able send their children to school secure in the knowledge that they will be protected from known risks, and children should be able to access their education without fear of harm and sexual violence.
"This was a shocking case of a school not appropriately recognising warnings signs or mitigating clear risks."
Lord added: "The risk assessment may have been in existence but it cannot have been implemented in any effective way."
Adam Carey
