A recent lawsuit says that a group called the “kissing club” at a well‑known private school in Los Angeles has turned the concept of “mean girls” on its head.
The suit alleges that the club functioned as a hotbed of harassment and abuse, so extreme that a seven‑year‑old girl was reportedly forced to kiss and touch the genitals of older students.
In the complaint, the child is identified only as “E.K.”. According to the filing, she endured months of bullying from older girls before the alleged assaults took place at Sierra Canyon. By age nine, E.K. was scared to use school restrooms because older girls would watch her from the stalls and she was also subject to name‑calling.
E.K.’s mother, Pantea Kipnis, said she had reached out to school officials to report the intimidation and asked for a restroom monitor, but the institution apparently did nothing to safeguard her daughter. The lawsuit claims that late in the 2023‑2024 academic year, teachers caught two girls kissing in the bathroom, which led them to uncover the “kissing club.” The plaintiffs say some participants had recorded their behavior on cell phones.
One teacher, the suit says, received explicit videos from a student’s phone and shared them with other staff members. Following the incident, the group was supposedly pressure‑cooked into allowing an eight‑year‑old girl and other minors to join, where they were further coerced into hugging and groping.
The lawsuit argues that lack of supervision enabled the club’s existence for an extended period, providing the older girls opportunities to carry out the sexual assault on E.K. and any other victims. Pantea and her husband Max claim they learned of the incidents from another parent whose child also experienced abuse, and they criticize the school for its complacency.
They allege that Sierra Canyon failed to have robust policies for dealing with sexually inappropriate conduct and did not properly train staff to handle such situations. The parents say the school’s negligence caused them great emotional distress.
In a press event, Pantea, with tears in her eyes, told Fox 11 LA that it was “crushing” to feel helpless and unable to shield her child from preventable harm.
Sierra Canyon School has not yet responded to requests for comment.
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