Maryland High School Sports Sexual Abuse Lawyers Helping Abuse Victims File Civil Lawsuits for Financial Compensation

When you sign your child up for a school sports team, you expect them to have a chance to experience the pride and improved health that being active in a sport allows. So, it can be devastating to find out that instead of reaping the rewards of being a school athlete, your child has been sexually abused by an adult who was supposed to protect and guide them. If this is the case for your family, we urge to you contact Andreozzi + Foote for legal representation.

When you hire our lawyers, you’ll find out how to seek justice and financial compensation for your child after they’ve suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their coach or any other adults involved with their sports team. Call our law firm for a free and confidential consultation with caring, skilled attorneys ready to initiate a civil lawsuit on behalf of your family.

How Does Sexual Abuse in High School Sports Happen?

When you’ve put time and effort into choosing a school that’s safe and able to offer your child the best possible education, it can be shocking to find out that a sexual abuser works there and has constant access to children. You should be able to expect the school to carefully screen employees and ensure they don’t have an opportunity to victimize them through sexual assault. But in many cases, predators can find their way to jobs that put them in close contact with their future sexual abuse victims.

In fact, high school sports teams provide plenty of opportunities for sexual abusers to prey on children. This is because coaches and coach assistants see the same small group of students several times a week, allowing them to become close enough to groom them over time. This often means giving them gifts, paying them compliments, and offering them one-on-one attention under the guise of improving their athletic skills.

Once coaches have the trust and admiration of athletes, the sexual abuse might begin. It often takes place in locker rooms or during away games or meets where teams travel by bus and stay in a hotel. While some students don’t report sex abuse because they don’t know that it’s wrong, others are shamed or threatened into silence, as they might fear losing their spot on the team if they don’t let the sex abuse continue.

It’s not always clear what constitutes sexual abuse, which is partly why sexual abuse cases can be complex. For many sex abuse victims, the abuse starts small and gradually becomes more extreme. For example, a coach might playfully swat an athlete on the rear end or offer an athlete a massage after practice. This can quickly turn into groping of the genitals, along with unwanted sexual compliments and exposure to pornography.

As the coach becomes bolder and more assured that the athlete won’t report the sexual abuse, they might escalate their actions, resulting in rape, sodomy, or other types of sexual assault. But it’s essential to remember that sex abuse can take many forms and doesn’t always involve physical touch. Any sexual attention or contact between an adult and a minor is wrong and should be reported as child sexual abuse. If you realize you were sexually abused by your coach years ago or that your child may have been sexually abused recently, contact our Maryland law firm for help taking legal action.

What Are Signs That a Child Has Been Sexually Abused at School?

Many children do not report the sex abuse they might suffer at school. This might be because they’re too ashamed or scared to tell anyone about the sexual abuse, or they don’t even realize how to identify sexual harassment or abuse. For this reason, you should learn some common signs that your child may be a victim of sexual abuse at school.
Some of the first signs of sexual abuse that your child might display can include:

• Pain or discomfort going to the bathroom
• Redness or pain in the genitals
• Loss of appetite
• Difficulty sleeping
• Nightmares
• Personality changes, such as sudden shyness
• Mood swings that might include agitation or intense fear
• Symptoms of sexually transmitted infections
• Increased interest in talking about sexual acts
• Returning home from school with gifts or money with no explanation
• Refusal to go to sports practice

If you notice these signs of sex abuse in your child, you should consider talking to them about it if you feel comfortable doing so and believe they might open up to you. If you’re not ready to ask them if the suspected sexual abuse occurred, you should start recording your observations as you look for evidence that your child was sexually assaulted by a coach or other adults at school.

You should also look for long-term signs of child sex abuse that teens often show after months or years of being sex abuse victims. They might include:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Suicidal thoughts or attempts
• Fear or hatred of school or sports practices
• Resistance to removing clothes when changing or bathing
• Self-harm, such as cutting
• Social anxiety
• Poor hygiene
• Eating disorders
• Drug or alcohol abuse
• Sexual promiscuity
• Fear of intimacy

If you believe your child experienced sexual assault while involved in a school sports team, you should get help for them as soon as possible. You can start by reporting the sex abuse to the local authorities. Then you should contact our law firm to speak with a Maryland sex abuse lawyer who can assist you as you seek justice for your child.

How Can You Get Justice After Child Sexual Abuse?

No one should be able to get away with committing sexual assault against a child. When you hire our team, we’ll make sure the sexual abuser who hurt your child is held liable for the physical and emotional distress they caused. When we take on child sex abuse claims for clients, we seek compensation from anyone who was involved in the sex abuse, whether they directly committed it or allowed it to occur.

This means we can pursue compensation from not only the sex abuse offender, but also the school district, school administrators, teachers, or anyone else who failed to protect students from child sex abuse. For instance, if it turns out the school does not adequately screen employees before hiring them or has a history of ignoring reports of sexual abuse, they could be held liable for any sex abuse that occurs as a result.

The child sexual abuse lawsuits we handle for victims often seek compensation for the following:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Mental anguish
• Loss of enjoyment of life

So, if your child was a victim of sex abuse at school and you need help paying for their therapy and medical expenses, filing a civil lawsuit can help you collect the compensation you need for your child to start healing. When you contact us for legal representation before starting your child sex abuse case, we’ll do everything possible to get the fair settlement your family deserves. Contact us to schedule a free consultation with a compassionate Maryland sex abuse lawyer.

Should You Hire Maryland High School Sports Sexual Abuse Lawyers?

You should not have to deal with the devastating consequences of child sex abuse alone. Whether you or your child was a victim of sex abuse at school, there is help available when you reach out to our law firm. We will put you in touch with resources meant specifically for sex abuse survivors, with some examples being Family Crisis Center of Baltimore County, HopeWorks of Howard County, and Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MCASA).

Once you have access to mental health resources for sexual abuse survivors, we’ll ensure you know your legal rights when it comes to sex abuse lawsuits. For instance, you should know that the Maryland Child Victims Act removed the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims. This means you can report child sex abuse no matter how long ago the abuse occurred or how old you are now. You deserve support for your sexual abuse claims at any age, and a Maryland sex abuse lawyer from our firm will provide that for you.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to seek justice through a sexual abuse civil lawsuit, call us at 866-311-8640. You’ll get a free initial consultation with caring, experienced attorneys who have handled numerous sexual abuse lawsuits across Maryland. If you decide to pursue justice and financial compensation by filing a sexual abuse lawsuit, you can rest assured we’ll guide you through the legal process from start to finish so you get the monetary damages you need. Contact us to start your child sexual abuse lawsuit today.