What happened to you at Birmingham was not okay, and a jury said so about eighteen of you.

Scott Silva taught at Birmingham Community Charter High School in Lake Balboa and coached the girls' lacrosse team. In May 2019 a jury convicted him on twenty-five counts involving eighteen students, from 2016 to 2018, and a judge gave him nearly eleven years. Nine families sued the school and LAUSD that same month and, according to their lawyers, settled. That is nine of eighteen. If you were one of the others, or one of the ones nobody counted, this is about you.

The criminal case is done and the first civil case settled. What is open is a claim for every one of the girls who never filed, and the deadline runs to age 40. There is time; the record is the thing that fades.

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5 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.

This applies to you no matter what

You were one of the eighteen and your family didn't sue. Nine did. The conviction is the same for all of you.
You were never one of the eighteen. Twenty-five counts is what a prosecutor could prove in court, which is a floor, not a count of everyone he reached.
It was never charged, it was smaller than what was in court, and you still think about it. That is what harassment of a student is, and a school answers for it.
You told a coach, a counselor, anyone at the school, and he stayed on the field. That is the school's part of this, and it is the part the nine families sued over.
You are 24 now and figure it's ancient history. California's deadline runs to age 40. You have most of your twenties and all of your thirties.
You're a parent, a teammate, a friend asking for someone who can't. Reach out anyway.

The Birmingham record: the charges, the conviction, the sentence, the lawsuit, and when

We didn't write what's below. The Los Angeles City Attorney, a jury, the school's own student newspaper and the plaintiffs' lawyers did, and we link to every one. We don't add to it.

November 16, 2018

Scott Hughes Silva, a teacher and the girls' lacrosse coach, was charged over conduct with students going back to 2016. Case record.

May 6, 2019

A jury convicted him on 25 counts: sixteen involving sexual abuse of a minor, six of sexual battery, two of lewd conduct, one of false imprisonment. Eighteen victims. Case record.

May 16, 2019

Five adult victims and the families of four minors sued the school, LAUSD and Silva, saying the school had supervised him negligently. The Pearl Post.

June 19, 2019

He was sentenced to nearly eleven years in county jail, five years' probation and lifetime registration. Patch.

September 2022

The plaintiffs' lawyers reported a large settlement in the case, styled Z.B. v. LAUSD. The amount was not disclosed. Plaintiffs' counsel.

We checked this on September 11, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from September 2022. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a Birmingham Community Charter High School lawsuit

The school and the district. Birmingham is an independent charter, a nonprofit with a budget north of sixty million dollars, authorized by LAUSD, and both were sued in 2019. A teacher who abuses a student answers for himself, and Silva has. A school that let a coach be alone with teenage girls for two years answers for all eighteen, and for the ones who weren't counted. Both are public bodies for these purposes, which means no punitive damages but no cap on what a jury can award.

The first case settled. A settlement with nine families doesn't settle anything for the other nine, or for anyone who wasn't in the courtroom in 2019.

Your deadline: the California statute of limitations for sexual abuse at a public charter school

Until you turn 40, or five years from the day you understood what it did to you, whichever is later. That is the rule in Code of Civil Procedure 340.1, and the arithmetic here is easy: the girls in the criminal case were fourteen and fifteen in 2016, so they are in their mid-twenties, with something like fifteen years still to run. The school and LAUSD being public bodies changes nothing for conduct after 2009; there is no government claim to file first.

So nobody from the 2016 to 2018 lacrosse program is anywhere near out of time. The thing that runs out is not the calendar. It is witnesses, and texts, and who remembers who knew what.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told a soul. Your teammates did, and you watched what it cost them.
You liked him. Everybody did. That is why it worked.
It never went as far as what was in the trial, and you figure that means it doesn't count.
You think the nine families who sued got everyone's share. They got theirs.
You live somewhere else now, like most of the class of 2018.

Schools covered

Birmingham Community Charter High School in Lake Balboa, and everything that ran under its name: athletics, clubs, off-campus team events. A different LAUSD or Valley charter school? The questions still work. Answer them and say where.

Questions people are asking

Can I still sue over Scott Silva?

Yes, if you were a minor at the time, which everyone in the case was; California's deadline runs to 40. Nine families already sued and settled, and their settlement doesn't cover anyone else.

What kind of lawyer do I need?

A civil lawyer who sues schools and districts for institutional sexual abuse, not only the individual. That is the only kind we work with, and the firm we work with takes California cases wherever you live now.

He only got county jail. Is that all there is?

Criminal court decides punishment. Civil court decides what a school owes the students it failed, and those are different questions with different answers.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Here, nothing. Every case is on contingency. The lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing. Not for the call, not for the review, not for the case.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 5 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed California attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.