Five men and three women have filed lawsuits claiming they were sexually abused decades ago by two teachers who worked at public schools in San Jose, Mountain View and Santa Cruz.
One lawsuit brought on behalf of five men ages 37 to 64 alleges they were sexually abused as boys by a man who worked as a teacher at Mountain View Whisman School District and Santa Cruz City Schools. A second lawsuit brought on behalf of three women ages 56 to 58 alleges they were sexually abused as girls by a first-grade teacher at Alum Rock Union School District.
The lawsuits were brought under Assembly Bill 218, which opened a three-year period that ended in December making it easier for adults to file lawsuits over long-ago sexual abuse otherwise barred by the statute of limitations. The law has led to scores of lawsuits against schools and other institutions with youth programs, including the Boy Scouts and Catholic dioceses.
Court procedures under the law allow for an initial judicial review of the claims to determine whether there is sufficient merit for them to proceed, after which the accused respondents may be identified in the complaints filed in court.
The lawsuit brought by the women now in their 50s was filed Dec. 27 in Santa Clara County Superior Court against Alum Rock Union School District. It alleges that from 1970 to 1973, when the women were first graders at William R. Rogers Elementary, their male teacher would have the girls sit on his lap during class and touch them sexually.
The lawsuit said other students in the class noticed that the teacher “took a particular liking to female students who wore skirts or dresses,” and that one concerned parent met with the district vice principal in 1972 voicing concerns about the teacher’s inappropriate conduct. The lawsuit alleged the district never followed up or reported the complaint to authorities.
School officials have been required under California law to report suspected child abuse to authorities since at least 1980 under the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act.
“The sad reality is that the effects of childhood sexual abuse have stayed with these women for
more than five decades,” attorney Lauren Cerri said in a statement. “To say the abuse changed the lives of the three women is an understatement. They have lived with the guilt and the shame nearly their entire lives.”
Alum Rock Union School District had no immediate comment Tuesday.
The second lawsuit was filed Dec. 28 in Santa Cruz County Superior Court against Mountain View Whisman School District, a teacher and vice principal at the district’s Crittenden Middle School, and Traveling School Inc., a program the teacher ran that was overseen by the Whisman and, by 1987, Santa Cruz City Schools districts.
According to the lawsuit, the two of the alleged victims were students at Crittenden from 1970 to 1975, and the teacher groomed and abused them by giving them drugs, encouraging them to wear little or no clothing, disrobing in front of them and touching them inappropriately.
The other three alleged victims were students in the Traveling School program from 1987 to 1991 and claim they were subjected to similar abuse.
The lawsuit said California tax authorities suspended the Traveling School program, incorporated in Santa Cruz County, in 2000.
Mountain View Whisman and Santa Cruz City Schools districts had no immediate comment Tuesday.
“This teacher is believed to have taught at nearly two dozen schools in at least six countries and three states,” Cerri said. “There are believed to be dozens of victims. He should never have been permitted to teach for as long as he did with the complaints raised against him years ago.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com