The mother of an intellectually disabled girl who was allegedly taken out of school by three male students and sexually assaulted in a Starbucks bathroom and a nearby vacant building filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing Starbucks, Pittsburgh Public Schools and a company negligence property management.
The lawsuit alleges that school staff at Taylor Allderdice High School failed to provide adequate supervision and care to the girl during school hours and during transportation to and from school. It alleges that both property management company 101 Kappa Drive Associates #1 and Starbucks managers were aware of growing crime problems near their businesses and failed to provide security or training to employees on how to respond to and report criminal activity.
“Pittsburgh Public Schools failed to create a safe environment for my client to get to and from school when he knew he needed to. And Starbucks and Kappa failed to protect my client from the violence of others when they knew their businesses were sparking criminal activity. The painful result was her sexual assault,” said attorney Alec Wright, who represents the girl and her mother in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that the 15-year-old girl, whose name was withheld in the lawsuit, was taken off campus by three male students in October 2022. The lawsuit alleges that Starbucks employees witnessed the male students taking turns entering the bathroom with the girl and did not intervene. The alleged attackers then took her to a vacant building run by Kappa, where the third boy sexually assaulted the girl, according to the lawsuit filed in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.
At first, the girl could not tell her mother what happened to her. But days later, her mother said the school notified her that the girl was found crying alone at the dining room table because of a rumor that three boys had had sexual relations with her. The mother said she met with school officials who were later notified that the incident occurred at Starbucks and not at school as officials initially suspected.
The mother took the girl for a medical examination which she said showed positive signs of sexual assault. She reported the assault to the police, but more than a year later the police have not pressed charges.
A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety said the case had been closed and the county district attorney’s office had determined it would not file charges.
A message seeking comment was sent to Seattle-based Starbucks corporate communications. A phone number was not available for Kappa, but The Associated Press left a message with a real estate company that handles rentals at several Kappa properties.
A spokesperson for Pittsburgh Public Schools said the district does not comment on pending litigation.
Pittsburgh Public Schools offers bus passes for public transportation to high school students who live within 2 miles (3 kilometers) of their school and to younger students who live within 1.5 miles (2 .4 kilometers) from their school. At Taylor Allderdice Middle School, district officials had negotiated with the Pittsburgh Transit Authority to move the transit bus stop used by many students to the location in front of the Starbucks.
The girl’s mother notified school officials that her daughter would need help adjusting to high school and taking public transportation to school, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit notes that during the evaluation the girl’s IQ was determined to be around 65 and then below 60 on a second test, placing her intellectually in the lowest 1% of students.
However, the lawsuit alleges that during her first months in high school, the girl was unsupervised and was allowed to wander the hallways or hide in the bathroom during her classes. The tardiness and attendance policy was not enforced due to her disabilities, and staff did not address her leaving class or provide her with any safety monitors during school hours or on the way to and from the bus stop, according to the demand.
“It just makes me angry to know that there was so little supervision or protection for my daughter. If she leaves in the morning to go to school, then she should return home safely,” the girl’s mother said. “Taylor Alldersay let them take her off campus and Starbucks let them attack her in her bathroom. It’s all so frustrating and disheartening. It’s so hard to describe.”
The Associated Press does not name victims of sexual assault or abuse unless they do so publicly. The names of both the girl and her mother were not included in the lawsuit to protect the girl’s identity.
The lawsuit alleges that the teenage boys were given unrestricted access to the girl when they were able to take her off campus to the Starbucks bus stop, where school officials did not provide any safety monitors during core transportation hours despite knowing the increase in incidents of violence between students. violence and other negative activities.
The month before the sexual assault occurred, a large group of students got into a fight at the bus stop. A police officer was injured trying to break up the fight and police shocked two students with Tasers during the incident.
Business owners in the same building as Starbucks have reported harassment of customers, breaking a storefront, students challenging business owners to fights, and other problems related to drugs and vandalism. At least one business owner asked the school district to move the bus stop during school board meetings.
The lawsuit alleges that Starbucks and Kappa failed to respond to widely known problems involving crime, violence and mischief by failing to create policies or conduct training for employees on how to keep themselves or their customers safe, and by failing to provide measures security guards during heavy traffic. times.
The lawsuit alleges that Starbucks employees allowed students virtually unlimited access to their bathrooms, in part because the students increased the store’s sales.