School district must pay for affair

SAN DIEGO, June 27 (UPI) -- A jury found that the San Diego school district shares responsibility for an affair between a teacher and a teenage girl and must pay part of the damages.

The victim, now a college student, was awarded $1.25 million, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Friday. Her lawyer said the district must pay $700,000.

John Lee, a teacher at the Creative and Performing Arts School, pleaded guilty in 2007 to statutory rape and was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He admitted he began having a sexual relationship with the girl when she was 16 that continued until she graduated from high school.

John Gomez, a lawyer for the plaintiff, said students gossiped about the relationship and some teachers observed signs Lee and the victim were sexually involved. He said school officials failed in their duty to observe what was going on and to report it to the authorities.