A former prep student-athlete has filed a lawsuit against her private high school in Burbank, Calif., saying she was sexually assaulted by the track-and-field coach in 2019 while attending an away competition overnight.
The lawsuit was filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to a CBSLA report. The suit alleges that Mohamed Haddada, 27, was the former Providence High School coach who is accused of manipulating the then-16-year-old student-athlete and taking advantage of her age to sexually assault her, then warning her not to tell anyone about it.
The now 18-year-old plaintiff is listed as Jane Doe in the lawsuit.
The coach contacted several students to attend a school-sponsored track competition at the University of Las Vegas in late June 2019, including Doe, even though she hadn’t qualified to compete in the events.
According to the lawsuit, Haddada was the only chaperone with Doe and two other students and he stayed in the same motel. He is accused of assaulting Doe in his motel room after asking her to stay because she had possible food poisoning.
The suit states. “Plaintiff left the room and returned to her hotel room, where she cried through the entire night.”
Doe told her friend what happened and the incident left the plaintiff with bruises, the suit states.
That same month and on previous occasions, Providence administrators told Haddada and others that they believed he acted inappropriately with minor female students, but “did nothing further to investigate Haddada’s inappropriate conduct, did not supervise Haddada more closely [and] did not restrict or limit Haddada’s ability to be alone with minor students,” the suit states, according to CBSLA.
If the school administration had acted, Doe would not have been assaulted, the suit states. Doe confronted Haddada a few weeks after the alleged incident in Las Vegas and he admitted he sexually abused her, according to the suit.
Haddada allegedly threatened Doe not to tell anyone what had happened, but the girl told her mother in 2019, who told police, the suit states.
The suit’s allegations include sexual abuse of a minor, sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent hiring, supervision and retention. Doe is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Haddada is awaiting trial on charges of sexual abuse, according to court papers.
