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State finds 'systemic' failures in how a California school district handles sex abuse allegations

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A Southern California school district agreed to sweeping reforms Friday
in settling a state attorney general investigation into how it handled
allegations staff sexually abused students.   

The wide-ranging stipulated judgment with the El Monte Union High School
District draws to a close an 18-month investigation, which found
“systemic shortfalls in the district’s response to allegations and
complaints of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse of students.” The
investigation was spurred by a 2023 article in Business Insider, The
Predators’ Playground, which documented decades of sexual misconduct by
teachers, coaches and other staff at one of the district’s schools,
Rosemead High, ranging from sexual harassment and groping to statutory
rape. 

“Every child deserves to learn and grow in a safe and supportive school
environment. Unfortunately, our investigation found that this has not
always been the case for students enrolled in El Monte Union High School
District,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said. District administrators, he
added, “consistently mishandled students’ complaints of sexual
harassment, assault, and abuse by District employees and others. In
doing so, it jeopardized the safety and well-being of its students and
violated the community’s trust. Today’s settlement marks a beginning,
not an end. I am hopeful that the District will move swiftly to
implement the reforms required by this settlement, and my office will be
monitoring closely to ensure its compliance.” 

In an emailed statement, El Monte Superintendent Edward Zuniga said that
“student safety and well-being remain our highest priorities. This
agreement reflects our continued commitment to strengthening systems
that support safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environments.” 

Reforms mandated after investigation
Among other changes, the stipulated judgment requires the district to
designate a compliance coordinator to investigate complaints of sexual
harassment or abuse and creates a centralized system to store documents
related to investigations. It also requires the district to maintain a
list of substitute teachers found to have violated the district’s
employee policy on appropriate boundaries with students. The agreement
requires the district to establish an advisory committee to study its
compliance with the reforms and make additional recommendations, and to
provide students and parents with training for how to recognize the
signs of grooming — curriculum that Rosemead students have fought to
have implemented for the past four years. 

The agreement is a rare instance of state law enforcement taking an
active role in a K-12 school district’s compliance with California
education code and mandated reporting laws. The only other agreement
like it was reached in 2024 with the Redlands Unified School District,
following sexual abuse and misconduct allegations that cost the district
more than $50 million in legal settlements. In El Monte’s case,
announced Friday by Bonta at a press conference in Los Angeles, the
judgment requires four years of court-supervised oversight, and includes
sweeping reforms in how the district handles serious misconduct
allegations. 

Attorneys in the justice department’s Bureau of Children’s Justice
conducted the investigation, which focused on the district’s handling of
sexual misconduct allegations against school staff since 2018. It
included a review of more than 100 complaints, thousands of pages of
documents, and interviews with more than two dozen employees, former
students and others. The investigation found that district officials had
failed to properly respond to complaints, provide adequate reporting
procedures and adequately maintain records of misconduct allegations. 

The findings mirror those first identified by Business Insider, which
sued the school district for not releasing records under the California
Public Records Act. That case settled out of court, with district
administrators agreeing to conduct new searches for records and pay
$125,000 in legal fees. The district’s head of human resources, Robin
Torres, said in a deposition that her office had discarded disciplinary
records it was legally obligated to keep. She acknowledged that her
predecessors had failed to properly investigate allegations that staff
had sexually harassed students or had sex with former students soon
after they graduated. 

Years of sex abuse allegations
The stipulated judgment is the latest fallout from generations of
Rosemead High students coming forward to share their stories of being
preyed upon and groomed for sexual relationships at school. The LA
Sheriff’s Department opened criminal probes into at least three former
staffers, while students walked out of class in protest and several
teachers resigned following district investigations. At least five civil
lawsuits have been filed on behalf of former students.  Many were
represented by attorney Michael Carrillo, who previously brought a case
against the district that resulted in a $5 million verdict in favor of a
former student who said she was abused by a teacher the district allowed
to continue teaching after he was accused of fondling children. 

A new state law, the Safe Learning Environments Act, took effect earlier
this year and gives school officials more tools to identify suspected
misconduct. State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, a Democrat from Alhambra whose
district includes Rosemead High, authored the law. 

Among other reforms, the law establishes the creation of a non-public
database of alleged staff misconduct that administrators are required to
consult before hiring new employees. Similar databases already exist in
other states as part of a growing nationwide effort to prohibit
instances of “pass the trash,” where educators accused of sexual
misconduct leave a school district only to return to the classroom
elsewhere. This happened numerous times in the El Monte district. 

https://www.almanacnews.com/calmatters/2026/03/20/state-finds-systemic-fa
ilures-in-how-a-california-school-district-handles-sex-abuse-allegations/

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