A teenage college student who had a passionate affair with a Southern California high school teacher and is now the father of her child has filed a lawsuit against the teacher and the local school district.
The unidentified dad, now 18, also casts partial blame on the teacher’s parents, who have stepped in to help raise the child while the wayward teacher served a prison sentence for her part in the illicit relationship, reports NBC Los Angeles.
The disgraced teacher, Laura Elizabeth Whitehurst, was employed at Citrus Valley High School in Redlands, Calif. when the tryst occurred.
The male student was 16. He is now an 18-year-old college student.
The frisky 10th-grade English teacher (and one-time assistant girls soccer coach) initiated the relationship the summer before last during a school-related function. (RELATED: High school teacher has teen student’s baby, gets arrested)
Whitehurst, 29, was charged with 41 felony counts of sexual intercourse and oral copulation. Three male high school students were involved (at different times). She pleaded guilty and served half of a one-year sentence. She was released from prison last month.
In the 40-page lawsuit filed against the Redlands Unified School District, plaintiff’s attorney John Manly wrote, “Children in Redlands should not be a sex toy for their teacher.”
The suit claims that Whitehurst told the student that she was infertile.
Whitehurst invited the student to drink alcohol, the suit alleges, and had sex with him. When she became pregnant, she claimed that the child was a “miracle” and the result of “divine intervention,” reports the Daily Mail.
The teen’s lawsuit seeks compensation for emotional and psychological damages, as well as for some unclear financial loss.
“His life is forever altered,” another plaintiff’s attorney, Vince Finaldi said, according to the Mail.
The Redlands school district superintendent, Lori Rhodes, issued a statement concerning the lawsuit.
“The allegations in the John BB Doe lawsuit as they relate to the Redlands Unified School District and its current employees are simply untrue,” Rhodes said, according to NBC Los Angeles.
The attorneys for the unidentified 18-year-old plaintiff have not disclosed the amount of financial damages for which they are suing. They do want to subject Whitehurst to a psychological review, though. Based on the results of that review, they may seek to transfer full custody of the baby to their 18-year-old, college-student client.
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