E.I.

INTRODUCTION

A jury awarded plaintiff E.I.1 $1 million in damages after it found defendant El Segundo Unified School District (District) negligently failed to protect her from other students’ bullying while she was a student at El Segundo Middle School (Middle School). On appeal, the District argues: (1) the trial court erred in allowing E.I. to rely on various provisions of the Education Code to support her negligence claim; (2) the District is immune from liability because any decision made by the Middle School employees in determining how to respond to E.I.’s complaints of bullying was discretionary under Government Code section 820.2; (3) E.I. failed to prove any of her injuries were caused by the negligence of the Middle School employees; (4) the court erred when it allowed the jury to consider a negligent training and supervision theory because E.I. dismissed her second cause of action for negligent hiring, retention, supervision, and training; (5) the court should have excluded testimony from one of E.I.’s expert witnesses; and (6) E.I.’s counsel engaged in misconduct during closing argument. As we explain, the District has waived or failed to develop many of these issues…