Five women said five women were sexually assaulted by their high school teachers in the 1980s after the jury concluded that the Palos Vides Peninsula Unified School District failed to prevent abuse.
The Torrance jury found that district administrators were negligent when allowing long-rolling Hill High School English teacher and baseball coach Garry Poe’s groom and teenagers who eventually sexually abused the teen. The district may have to pay a sentence of at least $6.46 million, which will be distributed among the five women.
Poe’s former students sued the district in 2022, claiming he had built a relationship with them when he attended Rolling Hills High School, just sexually assaulting them on a five-week European tour that he accompanied each year after graduation.
Now in the 1950s and 60s, five women occupied witness seats during the four-week trial, building the annual European tour into a tradition of drinking, and they experienced the dark side firsthand. Each of them sued the school district under the alias of “Jane Doy” and each mentioned it to the court in her name.
“He got drunk throughout the trip,” testified Kim, a woman who told the jury about Poe’s way from teacher to tutor to abuser. Poe taught freshmen and senior English and she became his favorite.
She recalls Poe flirting publicly and says he often asks her about her boyfriend and whether they are having sex. She said he pushed himself to her in the hallway while she was caring for the kids as a junior, trying to kiss her.
During her trip to Europe, she testified that Poe often went to her room or summoned her to his room.
“I’m scared every night,” said King, who often cried in the witness stands when she described her multiple sexual assaults. At that time, she was 18 years old and said she was at a loss. On the way, she said, “I’m in survival mode.”
Two other women testified that during their respective European trips in the 1980s, Poe started unnecessary sexual intercourse with them at the age of 17. Another senior Rolling Hills graduate said she had an oral sex with Poe when she was 17 during her 1989 trip to Europe.
A woman, Michelle, said Poe made her claims during a trip to Europe and tried to kiss her in his hotel room, but she left. One of her friends reminded another partner and ups and downs senior teacher Jerry Kestenberg, who then called Michelle for a one-on-one meeting.
“He told me that I might have misunderstood what happened and that Coach Poe is trying to be a ‘father’,” she testified. She said, Kestenberg reminded her that Poe had a wife and four children and asked, “Do I want to hurt them?”
Daniel Varon, a lawyer representing women with Jenn Liakos, repeatedly roamed Poe with a “Wolf” for years and pointed out the young girl’s annual European trip that he could then attack. By the time of travel (starting shortly after graduation), none of the attendees were formal students in the school district.
“Garry Poe was able to develop trust, break boundaries and eventually recruit and sexually abuse,” Wallon told the jurors in the closing argument. “They have suffered lifelong injuries since then.”
These women testify with varying degrees of shame, intestinality, anxiety, avoidance and trauma. They did not sue Poe, but the district’s attorney refuted him and called him to the witness stand.
Under oath, Poe insisted that he did not do anything inappropriate and that the five women were enrolled in the school, now known as Palos Wilders Peninsula High School. He denied any misconduct with the two women and stressed that he fell in love with three other people shortly after his trip to Europe.
“I never had a relationship with my students,” Poe said. “Some of my former students are in Europe, but never have students,” he said.
The district’s attorney admitted that what Poe did was “despicable” but believed most of the sexual abuse occurred after the student graduated, and Poe led and organized a trip alone, without approval from the district.
“Where is Garry Poe responsible for the decision of one person, one person, one person?” Harry Harrison, who represents the school district, said in his closing remarks.
The lawyers for the five women told jurors that they should grant a total of nearly $100 million in the difference among women based on the severity of the abuse and differently distributed among women. Attorneys in the area argued that there were much less, and Harrison asked a jury to award $600,000 to each woman in past and future suffering, 90% of which was paid by Poe himself.
The jury ended up awarding $3.4 million to three women and two other women $1.7 million.
Harrison said the huge damage women attorneys seek seems disproportionate compared to their injuries. He described these women as achievements.
“To my credit, I didn’t see the broken people,” Harrison said. “I saw five women who continued to be educated and who continued to have careers and families.”
Times worker Sandra McDonald contributed to the report.
