APTOS—A lawsuit against Pajaro Valley Unified School District by the family of a 17-year-old Aptos High School student who was stabbed to death in August is proceeding, and will likely be filed in the coming weeks.
Charles “Tony” Piccuta, the attorney representing the family, declined to comment further on the case. But he said that he has until July to file a lawsuit, and will likely do so before then.
Piccuta says that the district was aware of recent incidents of on-campus violence involving one of the suspects, referred to in the lawsuit as K.O., who was already on probation for a violent crime—and who had also pulled a knife on another student weeks before the attack.
Piccuta filed a claim—which is the precursor to a lawsuit—against the district on Dec. 28. The district’s Board of Trustees rejected the claim at its Jan. 19 meeting, setting the course for the matter to proceed to court. There was no public discussion about the impending litigation.
The victim’s sister, who was supposed to pick him up from school on the day of the attack, filed her own claim on Jan. 18. Piccuta is also representing her.
The stabbing occurred on Aug. 31 on the Aptos High School campus.
The student, referred to in the lawsuit as G.S., died after being attacked by two students, one of whom was known to have a violent history.
In the claim, the family says the district was culpable in the attack because the suspect was allowed to return to school despite his violent past. The claim also says that ending the district’s School Resource Officer program placed students in danger.
The board canceled the SRO program in July 2020 after community members and students said that having a law enforcement officer on campus was intimidating and the wrong way to deal with at-risk students.
After the attack, however, the board reversed its decision.
The board on Dec. 8 approved the formation of a School Resource Officer and Mental Health Pilot Committee to evaluate the pilot program.
That committee includes four current parents, four students, four site administrators, four teachers, two community members, two school resource officers, two mental health clinicians, two law enforcement agency leads and the assistant superintendent. The committee has met three times and plans to meet two more times in April and May.
The trustees will hear a report on the committee during the May 11 meeting.
