WILLIAMSPORT – A California couple have filed negligence litigation against an educational tour company that arranged and allegedly held responsibility for overseeing a group of high school students on a trip to Spain one year ago - a trip during which their 16-year-old daughter was allegedly raped by one of the defendants.
The parents of a teenager known as L.F., of Camarillo, Calif., filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on June 22 versus EF Educational Tours and related entities of Cambridge, Mass., as well as individuals known who will be called D.T. and J.T., for the purposes of this article.
The suit says L.F. was part of a group of students who visited Madrid, Spain, in June 2022 as part of an trip EF organized and operated. It adds EF had a duty to provided "a safe travel experience."
L.F.'s group was consolidated with a group of Pennsylvania students that included D.T. and was chaperoned by his mother, J.T., the suit says.
“The consolidated groups were placed at the same hotel, which accommodation was organized, supervised, and controlled by the EF defendants. Defendant D.T. and L.F. were assigned hotel rooms directly next door to one another by the EF defendant, which assignments were organized, supervised (or supposed to be supervised) and controlled by the EF defendants," the suit says.
"There was no separation of the students by gender based on hotel floor assignments by the EF defendants, i.e. female rooms on one floor, male rooms on another floor. There was no separation of the students by gender based on sides of the hotel by the EF defendants, i.e. female rooms on one corridor, male rooms on another. Despite the vulnerable age of these minor travelers, minor female travelers were placed in rooms directly next to minor male travelers.”
The suit continues that “despite the vulnerable age of these minor travelers, there was no implanting or enforcing safety rules in the hotel for the minor travelers, such as curfews or prohibiting minor travelers of one sex from being in the rooms of minor travelers of the opposite sex,” nor was there “supervision of the minor travelers once in the hotel by the EF defendants, such as room checks or hallway monitors.”
Moreover, the suit alleges that D.T. made numerous advances towards L.F., all of which were rebuffed by her, as she made her feelings known to D.T. that such advances were unwelcome.
“On June 27, 2022, L.F. finally agreed to meet with defendant D.T. in the hotel hallway to tell him directly that his advances and harassing behavior were unwelcome and insist that he leave her alone," the suit says.
"There were no EF group leaders, EF supervisors, EF chaperones, or EF tour guides anywhere in the vicinity when these two minor travelers were in the hallway of the hotel outside their assigned, neighboring rooms, which rooms had been assigned by the EF defendants. Defendant D.T. arrived shirtless in the hallway, grabbing L.F. by the wrists, and pulling her into his hotel room. L.F. pleaded, protested, and insisted that the defendant D.T. stop, which he did not. Defendant D.T. ignored L.F.’s protests, cries, and tears, and proceeded to kiss her, and rub his body against hers,” the suit says.
L.F. says she cried and protested, but D.T. forced her onto the bed, where he raped her multiple times over several hours.
“He also photographed her against her wishes afterward. Once defendant D.T. freed L.F., L.F. reported the attack to the EF defendants, she was given medical attention at a Spanish hospital, and defendant D.T. was arrested and charged with the assault," the suit says.
The suit says the EF defendants promised a safe trip but instead, L.F. suffered "severely, physically, emotionally and psychologically, and will continue to do so into the future."
The plaintiffs charge that the defendants:
-Failed to properly protect the minor travelers on the trip;
-Failed to employ, train, supervise, and direct group leaders, tour guides, tour directors and other staff to ensure that they were properly supervising these minor travelers on this international trip;
-Failed to take necessary precautions to ensure that the minor travelers were safe while staying in the hotel that the EF defendants had arranged; and
-Failed to take necessary precautions by not have the supervising adults monitoring the minor travelers in the hotel that the EF defendants had arranged and over the rooms that the EF defendants had assigned.
For counts of negligent, negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of contract, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress, the plaintiffs are seeking, individually, jointly and severally, damages for past, present, and future pain and suffering, emotional pain and suffering, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, and any other compensatory damages, together with all costs of suit and other remedies allowed by law, interest in the maximum amount allowed by law, attorney’s fees and costs in the maximum amount allowed by law, and such other and further relied as the Court deems just.
The plaintiffs are represented by Susan B. Ayres of Hill & Associates, in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 4:23-cv-01038
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com