Bedugul Coffee: An elite private school's dirty legal trick

Parents suddenly lose their right to sue.

By George Zornick

When a student was sexually assaulted at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, his family filed a lawsuit in civil court. But the school quickly got the case diverted from the court system, because there was a mandatory arbitration clause tucked into the school's enrollment agreement. And Brentwood isn’t the only private school to use this tactic. Here’s Jessica Schulberg on reporting this story:

So what does it mean when someone has to enter mandatory arbitration?

You're now outside the court system. There's no jury, a pretty limited number of things you can get in discovery and what you do get usually has to remain confidential. There are also very limited options for appealing any decision.

What was the most surprising thing you discovered while writing this story?

That a Los Angeles daycare facility tried to enforce an arbitration agreement after parents accused employees of stabbing pushpins into toddlers' legs when the kids didn't follow instructions! In general, I was really surprised by how little data or research there is about mandatory arbitration in private schools. I called several lawyers and arbitration experts who had never heard of private schools using forced arbitration.

Reporting on a scandal involving students at a school like this must be a real challenge. What was your approach?

Lots and lots of calls! The combination of very legitimate privacy concerns and a culture of protecting the reputation of an elite community made it really difficult to find people who were willing to talk. But I think Brentwood's lack of transparency compelled some parents to get the information out there. They didn't feel confident that the school had taken steps to protect their kids. And they felt betrayed by this institution that preaches the importance of community forcing parents and their kids to forfeit their right to sue in civil court.

You’ve been at HuffPost for 4 years -- what’s the craziest story you’ve ever worked on?

Probably the time I got bamboozled into flying to Turkey to interview President Erdogan but instead got stuck in a compound listening to a conspiracy theorist who was also the mayor of Ankara explain how the U.S. and Israel intentionally create earthquakes. It happened to be International Women's Day and the mayor gave me and the other female reporters roses.

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