Broward County School Board Pays in Excess of Statutory Limits to Settle Sexual Abuse Case

The Broward County School Board has agreed to pay above their sovereign immunity limits to the anonymous victim of sexual abuse by Aaron Mohanlall, a teacher who was arrested tried and convicted of 13 counts of criminal sexual abuse on a minor. in order to settle the lawsuit. The civil lawsuit, which was brought by the Law Offices of Diana Santa Maria P.A. against the Broward County School Board asserted the School Board was negligent in their hiring of Mohanlall as well as in their supervision of him. The lawsuit further claimed that the School Board failed to protect the minor student and was negligent in their retention of the sexually abusive teacher. In order to heighten awareness and to prevent or reduce the incidences of sexual abuse in schools, attorney Santa Maria and the boy's family requested, as part of the settlement, that the School Board implement a program whereby all students are provided with a minimum 2 hour training class about unsafe touching as well as implement a confidential reporting mechanism for students to be able to report any acts of physically inappropriate touching. Attorneys for the Broward County School Board refused this request.