The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) cut ties today with a lawyer who argued that a 14-year-old student was old enough to consent to a sexual relationship with a school teacher.
The district said it will continue to work with W. Keith Wyatt’s law firm, but he will no longer be involved in any district legal matters.
“Our deepest apologies go out to the young woman and her family, who were hurt by the insensitive remarks of Mr. Wyatt,” LAUSD general counsel Dave Holmquist said. “As a school district, building and maintaining a strong sense of mutual trust with our students and their families is at the core of being able to provide a safe and productive learning environment.”
Wyatt represented the district in a civil lawsuit stemming from the actions of former Thomas Edison Middle School teacher Elkis Hermida, who was convicted in 2011 of lewd acts against a child for having a six-month sexual relationship with the student.
Wyatt argued during the civil trial last year that the girl knew what she was doing when she had sex with Hermida, KPCC radio reported.
“She went to a motel in which she engaged in voluntary consensual sex with her teacher,” Wyatt told the station. “Why shouldn’t she be responsible for that?”
He added, “Making a decision as to whether or not to cross the street when traffic is coming, that takes a level of maturity and that’s a much more dangerous decision than to decide, `Hey, I want to have sex with my teacher.”’
The jury ultimately found in favor of the LAUSD, accepting the district’s argument that it had no knowledge of the relationship and could not be held liable, according to KPCC.
Wyatt apologized Thursday for the remarks, telling the station they were “ill thought-out and poorly articulated.”
Holmquist called Wyatt’s remarks to the station “completely inappropriate, and they undermine the spirit of the environment we strive to offer our students every day.”
“This spirit drives more than just our actions in the classroom, it defines how we approach all of our work — especially the way we discuss and handle the sensitive litigation matters that we deal with,” he said. “These comments were a total violation of that spirit.”
