Santa Fe Public Schools agrees to pay $2.2 million to settle sex assault case

Santa Fe Public Schools agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit by a former student who alleged she was sexually assaulted by a classmate at Santa Fe High School in 2021.

The civil suit states the plaintiff, then 16 and a junior at the school, was drugged and then raped in a car in the school parking lot by another student in September 2021. The settlement was first reported Tuesday by the Santa Fe New Mexican.

It is unclear whether the boy was criminally charged, as he was a juvenile at the time of the assault. A spokesperson for the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry regarding his criminal record.

The lawsuit, filed in 2023 in 1st Judicial District Court, accused Santa Fe Public Schools; then-SFPS superintendent Hilario Chavez; former Santa Fe High School principal Renee Salazar-Garcia; and the school’s contracted security company Allied Universal Security Systems of negligence that resulted in the allegations.

The accused student, a teenage boy, was also named as a defendant in the suit, along with another former student whom the complaint said owned the car where the alleged assault took place.

“The victim has shown remarkable strength in pursuing accountability through this process,” said Kate Ferlic, an attorney for the plaintiff, in a statement. “This settlement affirms that her voice matters and that what happened to her deserved a serious response.”

The plaintiff will receive the settlement money over the course of 15 years, according to an agreement signed in May of last year. 

Two district spokespeople did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the settlement and the allegations.

According to the complaint, Santa Fe Public Schools has since terminated its contract with Allied Universal. Representatives for the security company did not respond to a request for comment. 

Since the district agreed to settle, Santa Fe Public Schools is no longer a defendant in the suit, according to attorneys for the plaintiff. The civil case against the remaining defendants will go to trial later this year. 

According to the complaint, the boy met the plaintiff in a speech and debate class and began sexually harassing her, including groping the plaintiff. The lawsuit alleges teachers and security guards witnessed the assaults and harassment and failed to intervene.

At the time of the incident, the lawsuit alleges the boy was on probation in an attempted murder case and had recently been suspended from school for insulting or threatening a teacher. 

On Sept. 13, the lawsuit alleges the boy offered the plaintiff a pill she believed to be a Xanax, but was really the tranquilizer flualprazolam, which she accepted under pressure, “mistakenly believing that she would be safe at school.” Then, the lawsuit alleges the boy paid a fellow student $20 to use their car to assault the plaintiff.

The lawsuit alleges the boy raped the plaintiff while she was in an altered state of consciousness “for several hours,” during which school staff did not notice that the two were missing, because the school did not require that teachers take attendance.

Attorneys for the accused and his alleged accomplice did not respond to the Journal’s requests for comment on the case.

After the alleged assault, the lawsuit said the plaintiff was left  “unconscious, half-clothed and severely injured” in a portable toilet on campus, where she was found around half an hour later by a visitor.

The complaint said that “at least three” student-on-student rapes or sexual assaults happened on campus at Santa Fe High School since 2019, two of which involved the victims being drugged.

The lawsuit accused the district and the security company of negligence for failing to prevent the assault by not increasing security in an area of the school known to be dangerous. According to the complaint, students knew that certain areas of the school, including the parking lot, were unsupervised by security. The complaint also contends that had teachers at the school been required to take attendance each class period, they would have noticed the boy and girl were absent. 

Plaintiffs alleged that Allied Universal failed to stop the assault and that, despite the security company’s “obvious and repeated lapses, failures and omissions,” the school district increased the company’s compensation in October 2021. 

“This case highlights what can happen when critical public safety functions are handed over to private contractors without sufficient accountability,” Ferlic said. “While the district has moved on from that contract, the community still deserves answers.”