Excerpt:
A federal judge ruled last Thursday that a civil lawsuit can proceed against the School District of Philadelphia, the School Reform Commission and the substitute teacher on duty when a kindergartner was kidnapped from class last year and later sexually assaulted.
The school district had asked U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois to dismiss the complaint against the district and teacher Reginald Littlejohn, in which attorney Tom Kline argued the victim, then 5, was denied her constitutional right to personal safety at Bryant Elementary School in West Philadelphia.
The lawsuit, filed by the girl's family, claims Littlejohn violated school policy on Jan. 14, 2013, by releasing the child to Christina Regusters, 21, a stranger hidden head-to-toe in Muslim garb. Regusters worked at an after-school program the girl attended and was permitted to take the child out of class without providing identification.