By: George Lettis, WBAL-TV, March 13 2015
A Baltimore City school is being sued over a sex abuse case involving a teacher and a student by the librarian who reported the abuse.
"They did it in a way that really wasn't necessary. They published her name in the newspaper and treated her as if she was a wrongdoer," said Goodman's attorney, Linda Correia.
Correia is helping Goodman sue the school and the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
On March 6, 2014, Goodman said she had heard that a Curley teacher, Lynette Trotta, was having sex with a student who was a minor. Goodman said she later confirmed it through that student. She reported it to school leadership on April 1.
Trotta, who pleaded guilty and is on probation, was fired, but Goodman was also fired because the archdiocese said she took too long to report the abuse.
In the lawsuit, Goodman claims she did not know about that 48-hour reporting law. Correia said she had good reason to wait.
'She wanted to be sure that what she was reporting to the school administrators wasn't just rumor. This is a very serious allegation," Correia said.
Goodman also claims another teacher at Curley had already raised concerns to school leadership about Trotta's alleged relationship with the student.
Goodman is suing based on Title 9 federal law, which prohibits schools from retaliating against someone who reports such abuse.
"She was fired, she thinks, because the school was trying to deflect its own responsibility for not responding to known problems with this teacher," Correia said.
See the full WBAL-TV article and video here.
