School district sued after off campus gang rape report

FRESNO, Calif. -- Three teens are accused of a gang rape in Fresno and now their school is also the target of a lawsuit.

The victim says it happened twice -- and Central Unified should've been able to prevent it.

The alleged attacks happened about a year ago, but the details only became public when the lawsuit was filed because the suspects are juveniles. But the document describes nothing less than a nightmare.

Walking home from Rio Vista Middle School got to be pretty dangerous for a teenage girl. According to a lawsuit filed on her behalf, the first time she ran into trouble after school, two boys forced their way into her friend's house, then took turns holding her down and raping her -- even as she screamed for help.

A couple months later, she says it happened again. This time, there were three of them threatening her with physical violence and forcing her to perform sex acts while one of them recorded it all on his cell phone.

"The lawsuit is about not only the sexual assault that occurred with these students, but the school district failing to provide adequate safety for the child after they were aware there were problems between these kids," said Warren Paboojian, the attorney suing on the girl's behalf.

The sex tape eventually circulated on social media and Fresno police found out soon after when a school resource officer called them. They couldn't reveal details of the investigation, but confirmed to Action News that multiple juveniles were involved and arrested.

We're not identifying them because of their ages, but the lawsuit does and says, based on prior incidents of sexual misconduct, the school district should've done more.

"I believe the evidence is going to show they were problem child kids and at the end of the day there was plenty of notice for the school district to determine they should've protected the child and done something with these other boys who committed the crime," Paboojian said.

We reached out to Central Unified for comment, but their spokesperson told us they can't comment on pending litigation.