Lawsuit seeks to hold the school and district accountable for allowing the former teacher from abusing his authority
VAN NUYS, Calif. – Former Birmingham High School teacher Frank Ezykowski has been accused of sexually assaulting students throughout the 1970s and 1980s. One student survivor came forward about her assault during the 1977-1978 school year to encourage others he harassed or assaulted to join her in seeking justice against the school and district for allowing Ezykowski to prey on students.
Ezykowski was an alum of Birmingham High School in Van Nuys and returned to teach biology.
Multiple witnesses will corroborate that Ezykowski, known among students as “Easy Ezy,” made sexual advances at many female students. He would often return from the storage room attached to his classroom immediately before a class started with a female student and proceed to wink at her throughout the lesson. It was also well known that only select female students ever got A’s in his class. While some girls wanted to “date” him, others felt forced to submit to his harassment if they wanted good grades.
The civil suit seeks to hold the school and district accountable for allowing Ezykowski to take advantage of his position of trust and authority over teenage students. The suit alleges the school and district negligently and knowingly allowed Ezykowski to commit childhood sexual assault, sexual battery, and more.
“It’s extremely common for people who experience childhood sexual assault to take decades to process the experience and decide to come forward,” said Meghan McCormick, an attorney at Boucher LLP representing the survivor. “Don’t ever feel ashamed to seek help – or justice – no matter how long ago it may have occurred.”
The complaint alleges Ezykowski took the young student into a storage room attached to the back of his classroom where he sexually assaulted her. Though she successfully avoided future assaults, Ezykowski retaliated against her when she was forced to work with him as a teacher’s assistant. In addition to being generally unkind and short, Ezykowski gave her only C grade of her entire high school career.
“Ezykowski’s assault was traumatizing,” said the survivor, who prefers to remain anonymous. “The school knew his reputation for targeting female students and stood idly by while he assaulted me and others.”
The case, 22STCV31454, was filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, Central District. Anyone who experienced a sexual assault can learn more and access resources at www.rainn.org.
About Boucher LLP
Boucher LLP, available at www.boucher.la, is a boutique law firm with extensive legal expertise in cases involving sexual abuse, assault and harassment, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, workplace accidents, wage and hour violations, faulty medical devices, false labeling, and civil rights. It has tried or otherwise resolved cases resulting in the recovery of more than $500 million for its clients over the past four years.