Student, School Settle Lawsuit Out of Court

A former student at an exclusive Catholic high school who accused administrators of making her snitch on a schoolmate’s alleged drug use but failing to protect her identity, has settled her lawsuit out of court.

The terms of the settlement were confidential. The school continues to deny wrongdoing.

Sheila Shilati, 20, claimed that she was forced to transfer from Chaminade High School to another private school shortly after the 1995 incident because other students ostracized her and the subject of the probe threatened her. Shilati, who was the captain of Chaminade’s basketball team at the time, said the move cost her the chance to go UCLA. She is now a student at UC Santa Barbara.

The lawsuit accused the school of fraud, negligence, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress.

Her lawyer, Bruce Safran, said he was very happy with the settlement, which was reached Thursday in a conference with Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Marvin Rowen.

“Recruiting students to act as informants is very dangerous, and I don’t think they considered the potential consequences,” he said. “Nothing happened to her but she could have ended up dead.”

But Andrew Whitman, Chaminade’s lawyer, said Safran’s statement was misleading and the “unmeritorious” lawsuit was resolved only after numerous pretrial rulings in Chaminade’s favor.

“The school’s position is that the resolution of the case was very much supportive of their position,” Whitman said. The settlement was a purely economic decision to avoid the cost of trial, he said.

The events that led to the suit unfolded in the winter of 1995, during Shilati’s senior year at the West Hills school.

Safran said his client was questioned twice by a school dean about what she knew about a teammate’s use of drugs.

After she was promised anonymity, Safran said, Shilati told a trusted administrator that the girl they were investigating had once said she’d hidden drugs in her car’s fuse box to avoid detection. The girl confessed to having used drugs and was expelled shortly after that, Safran said.

But rather than keep Shilati’s identity confidential, Safran said a school official left a document containing her name in plain view of the expelled student’s grandmother.

As a result, he said, Shilati was later threatened and insulted by schoolmates.

“She transferred because she couldn’t take it anymore,” Safran said. “She hasn’t been able to put this behind her until now that there’s closure.”

In contrast, Whitman said a number of students were questioned during the investigation and the school did not punish those who refused to give information.

He said the grandmother only learned Shilati’s name after fishing through a file while an administrator left the room briefly. He also said the school investigated, but could not substantiate, Shilati’s harassment claims.

The school stands by its actions in the case, Whitman said. It also continues to aggressively investigate allegations of drug use and illegal activities at the school.

What makes the school elite, Whitman said, is both the quality of the education and the effort by officials to provide a safe and drug-free environment.

The school is facing another lawsuit in connection with the incident, Whitman said. The girl who was expelled is claiming the school unjustly threw her out.