San Francisco Unified School District has agreed to a $4.5 million settlement in a lawsuit over alleged sexual abuse of two female students by a former athletic director.
The victims, referred to as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, were enrolled at George Washington High School while Lawrence Young-Yet Chan served as the school's athletic director. According to KTVU, Chan sexually abused Jane Doe 1 fro 2012 to 2016 and Jane Doe 2 from 2012 to 2013.
The victims alleged that Chan groomed them by buying them lunch, allowing them to drive his car to and from school, buying them gifts, helping them stretch, and taking them out to dinner. Chan also spent time with each victim alone on school grounds.
In 2017, Jane Doe 1 reported the abuse to SFPD, but Chan was released for lack of evidence.
According to attorney Lauren Cerri, of the law firm Cerri, Boskovich & Allard, “the majority of the sexual abuse took place on the George Washington campus during school hours – in Chan’s locked office, in a locker room and a stairwell, and in the student government classroom. He was totally unsupervised."
In a press release, the law firm representing the victims, said that after Chan was released in 2017, the school entered into a "secret agreement" with Chan that allowed him to quietly resign.
Despite the fact the two students were allegedly sexually abused more than a decade ago and that Chan was never convicted, the evidence was compelling enough for the District to agree to the settlement.
“Had this case gone to trial, we were confident that a jury would likely return a verdict greater than the settlement amount,” Cerri said. “But in agreeing to the settlement, the two women were spared having to retell their stories and can now move forward and start to rebuild their lives.”
