SEATTLE — A civil trial beginning next week will examine whether Seattle Public Schools failed to protect students from a teacher with a documented history of alleged aggressive behavior, culminating in a 2018 assault on 13-year-old student.

Zakaria Sheikhibrahim, now 21, is suing the district after his math teacher punched him twice in the face during class at Meany Middle School on January 11, 2018. The lawsuit states the district had been warned about the teacher's dangerous behavior for nearly a decade before the attack.

"Seattle Public Schools made conscious decisions to keep this man employed," said Lara Hruska, one of Sheikhibrahim's attorneys. "They made purposeful cost-benefit decisions to protect an adult instead of protecting children."

The case centers on a troubling questio

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