Jury Awards $4.35 Million to Teacher in Harassment Case

A jury awarded $4.35 million in damages Friday to a Palisades High School teacher who accused the Los Angeles Unified School District of doing almost nothing to stop publication of a student newspaper that depicted her as a porn star.

The seven-woman, five-man Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for 31/2 hours before ruling in favor of Janis Adams, who sued the district after 10 issues of the underground newspaper had been distributed across campus over a three-month period.

The jury awarded Adams $1.1 million for lost earnings and $3.25 million for emotional distress.

“Today, the jury came back with a unanimous verdict to say what happened to me was wrong,” she said at a news conference at the office of her attorneys, Nathan Goldberg and Gloria Allred. “To me this means no other teacher will have to suffer what I did.”

In an interview, school district general counsel Hal Kwalwasser said he plans to appeal the jury verdict.

“We feel we did everything possible to protect Mrs. Adams, and we took action against the students,” he said.

Kwalwasser also said Adams and the district were initially in agreement that what the students needed was a stern admonishment for what he described as “inappropriate behavior.”

“Mrs. Adams now takes the attitude we did nothing,” he said, “when, in fact, we did several things that were opposed by countervailing forces, including students and the American Civil Liberties Union.”

Adams declined to comment on Kwalwasser’s assertions except to say, “That’s just not true at all. The district doesn’t seem to get it.”

Adams’ husband, Mark Adams, was more blunt.

The district’s trial lawyer, he said, “unintentionally framed the underlying issue in this case during her closing argument: Whose side should the school district be on?

“Should the district be on the side of some spoiled, rich kids who raped their teacher with their words and their pictures? Or should the district be on the side of a teacher who is just trying to do her job and protect herself against sexual harassment?”

Asked why Adams had not targeted the students and their families in her lawsuit, her trial lawyer Goldberg said:

“This was never about the kids. This was about her employer. The district has an obligation to protect its employees from sexual harassment.”

The jury, he added, “said the district has a rule book but didn’t read it.”

In an earlier interview, one student involved with the newspaper, Michael Burke, said the administration and Adams overreacted to a publication he dismissed as merely a prank.

“Maybe it’s the generation gap that makes it look worse to adults than to us,” he said. “Or maybe we students don’t know what’s funny and what’s not.”

One article in the newspaper suggested ways of “making your teacher cry.”

Some students began calling Adams names as she walked across the campus. A handwritten death threat was posted on her classroom door.

One article in the newspaper had Adams’ face superimposed over a nude woman’s body.

After Adams repeatedly complained about the hostile and abusive working environment, district officials in March 2000 banned the newspaper and transferred five students to another campus. Those students, however, were allowed to graduate with diplomas from Palisades High. Six other students were suspended.

Adams took a leave of absence from the job that had earned her consistently favorable performance evaluations.

“Now, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my life,” she said. “I just hope that other teachers are not afraid to stand up.”