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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 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, , 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 with the Redlands Unified School District, following sexual abuse and misconduct allegations that 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.

In an interview with CalMatters, Bonta said that his office was focused on trying to establish best practices for school districts across the state in how to address sexual misconduct allegations when they surface. “I don’t think this will be the last case of this type, unfortunately,” Bonta said, adding that his staff would conduct unannounced site visits of the district in the months ahead to ensure compliance with the settlement. “We think we’ve arrived at a model that can really help districts that have failed systemically, transform.”

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. , 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 into at least three former staffers, while students and several teachers resigned following district investigations. At least five civil lawsuits .  Many were represented by attorneys Dominique Boubion and 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 after he was accused of fondling children.

“The attorney general’s intervention confirms what survivors have been saying for years: EMUHSD failed its students,” Boubion told CalMatters. “This was not an isolated breakdown. It was a longstanding failure to protect children, and it stretches back decades. The district should stop resisting and start complying. Students have the right to be safe at school.”

A new state law, the , 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 .

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.

Perez called the settlement a “significant step toward ending the pervasive sexual misconduct that has harmed so many students in the El Monte Unified School District. Today’s agreement stems from the work of former Rosemead High School students who bravely shared their stories of harassment, assault, and abuse.”

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On the eve of what was expected to be a long and gut-wrenching trial, a small school district in Santa Barbara County has settled a sexual abuse lawsuit for $7.5 million with two brothers, now 65 and 68 years old, who claimed a long-dead principal molested them in the 1970s.  

The brothers had sought $35 million for the harm they said they suffered, an attorney for the youngest brother said.

The settlement equals about 40% of the 350-student district’s 2025-26 budget, although the district did not disclose the terms and timetable for the payment. The district’s superintendent acknowledged in a statement that there would be an impact on the budget. 

Board members of the Montecito Union School District announced the settlement over the weekend. The trial was scheduled to start Monday.

The case was brought under a 2019 state law, Assembly Bill 218, that removed a statute of limitations for filing claims that employees of public agencies, including school districts and city and county governments, sexually abused children placed in their care.

Estimates suggest settlements and jury awards could cost California school districts as much as $3 billion by one projection, and possibly a lot more. Los Angeles County alone has agreed to pay $4 billion to settle abuse claims with more pending, mostly involving plaintiffs who were once in foster care.

With many larger lawsuits with multiple victims yet to be settled or go to trial, the financial impacts are hard to predict. Small districts are worried that multimillion-dollar verdicts could devastate budgets, if not lead to insolvency. Insurance costs, meanwhile, , according to a survey of districts.

In the Montecito case, the brothers were seeking $35 million in damages combined, John Richards, a lawyer representing one of them, said outside of court Monday.

Montecito is not alone in facing decades-old accusations. The San Francisco Unified School District is embroiled in an ongoing suit involving a teacher who allegedly molested a student in the mid-1960s, records show.

School boards association helps with legal fees

The Montecito case drew the attention of the California School Boards Association, which gave the district a $50,000 grant to help with legal costs, said spokesman Troy Flint.

Flint said Montecito Union Superintendent Anthony Ranii has “been a staunch advocate for AB 218 reform because he understands how this well-intentioned law carries such significant unintended consequences that compromise the educational experience of current and future students.”

Montecito Union “is just one example of what potentially awaits school districts and county offices of education statewide,” Flint added.

The settlement came just weeks after state Assembly members let a measure that would have restored a statute of limitations to such cases, Senate Bill 577,  in the final days of the legislative session. Its sponsor, Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, said he would bring it back next year.

At a brief hearing Monday, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Thomas P. Anderle called the Montecito matter “a case of real consequence.” He had scheduled 17 days for trial, court records show. The district’s lawyers did not attend the hearing.

The brothers’ lawsuit was filed in 2022 and alleged that Montecito Union’s former superintendent and principal, Stanford Kerr, molested them in the early 1970s, including raping one of them. Kerr died in 2013 at 89. He never faced criminal charges.

A third plaintiff who also claimed Kerr abused him settled earlier with the district for $1 million. He had described a full range of abuse covering many types of conduct, which included rape, court filings state.

Just recompense for years of suffering

The brothers, identified in court documents as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, pushed forward, Richards said, hoping to be compensated for years of agony. The younger of the two, Richards said, has suffered a lifetime of substance abuse, which is blamed on Kerr’s assaults. 

“The money is nice,” Richards said, but the younger brother also seeks “social acknowledgment that what happened to (him) was terrible. He has a long way to go,” in recovering.

The district admitted no liability in making the settlement.

Montecito Union has no insurance coverage going back to the period the brothers said the abuse occurred — 1972 to 1978, Ranii said in a statement.

“We were prepared to mount a vigorous defense,” he said. But the possibility of a jury awarding far more than the district could afford pushed the idea of a settlement after years of pretrial maneuvering.

The superintendent’s statement did not directly address the brothers’ claims. It also did not mention Kerr.

“We are deeply mindful of the enduring pain caused by sexual abuse and feel for any person who has experienced such abuse,” Ranii said in the statement.

A large award in the event of a trial would have â€œdiminished our ability to serve students now and well into the future,” Ranii said. “Continued litigation created exceptional financial vulnerability. Settling now allows us to stabilize operations and remain focused on today’s students.”

Montecito is an unincorporated oceanfront community just south of Santa Barbara in the shadows of the Santa Ynez Mountains. Its residents include Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The district is one of the state’s richest, with more than $40,000 per student in funding due to tax receipts from high-value properties. 

The district will manage the costs through a hiring freeze, staff reductions “when natural attrition occurs,” and redirecting “funds previously designated for capital repair,” Ranii said. The settlement allows the district to avoid layoffs, he said.

The brothers’ case was built around the testimony they would have given about Kerr’s abuses, Richards said. There was no physical evidence. At one point, a district employee went to the brothers’ home and forced their parents to sign a document requiring them to make sure the boys came right home after school and avoided Kerr, according to court filings.

Richards said the district did not produce such a document in discovery. It had no records that the boys ever attended the school, he said, although their photos appear in yearbooks. The district also had no records that Kerr ever faced accusations of abuse or sexual misconduct.

Two school board members from Kerr’s time as superintendent said in depositions taken for the brothers’ suit that they would have taken action had they known he was abusing students, Richards said. But with the case settled, the elderly former members won’t be called to testify.

All that remains is a final hearing that the judge scheduled for Nov. 19 to make sure the payment has been received “and that the check’s been cashed,” he said.

Editor-at-Large John Festerwald contributed to this story.

This story was originally by EdSource.  for their daily newsletter.

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When Samantha Muñoz was a second grader at Fancher Creek Elementary in Clovis, her teacher told her she “wasn’t that bright” and needed extra help with schoolwork. He’d make her stay in the classroom at recess, or tell her to sit on his lap while other students were busy with assignments.

During those quiet times in the classroom, she said, he sexually abused her — over and over, for at least a semester, even after the school principal walked in on him.

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“No one knew. I just didn’t know who to run to. I ran to the school, and they shut me down into silence,” said Muñoz, who’s now 28. “But (now) I’ve figured, no one should be living like this. It’s time to speak your truth and make it OK to talk about. It’s a sensitive topic, but it needs awareness and closure.”

Muñoz, who lives in Fresno County, is part of a multi-plaintiff lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District alleging the district knew about Muñoz’s teacher but — for at least seven years, from 2005-2012 — did not stop him from abusing students. Clovis Unified had no comment on the case because of the litigation.

Muñoz’s case is one of at least 1,000 lawsuits against California school districts and counties stemming from , a sexual abuse reform law that took effect in 2020. It temporarily dropped the statute of limitations, provided a three-year window for victims to file claims and otherwise made it easier for them to sue school districts and counties.

The cases span decades, some as early as the 1940s. In many cases the perpetrator is dead, the district staff has turned over, and there’s no longer a paper trail of the original complaint, if there ever was one.

The new law has resulted in a slew of payouts to abuse survivors, most in the range of $5 million to $10 million but some much higher. In 2023 a jury delivered a $135 million verdict against Moreno Valley Unified in Riverside County. Los Angeles Unified is expecting to pay more than $500 million to settle a portion of its claims. Overall, the claims against schools total nearly $3 billion.

Counties also have paid out large sums of money. In April, Los Angeles County to settle 6,800 abuse claims from victims who were abused in foster care or in probation department facilities. Like many government entities, Los Angeles County is self-insured.

The settlements have been so large that they’ve brought some school districts to the brink of financial insolvency and state takeover. They’ve also resulted in steep spikes in insurance payments for all school districts, regardless of whether they’ve been sued.

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Carpinteria Unified is among those districts facing financial collapse.

The predominantly low-income Latino district near Santa Barbara has been served with four sexual abuse lawsuits, all involving the same perpetrator: a principal who was in the 1970s and early 1980s.

“These suits are settling for $5 million to $10 million each, and we have a $42 million budget. You do the math,” said Superintendent Diana Rigby. “It’s untenable.”

The district has already spent $750,000 on legal fees, and has had to lay off staff, increase class sizes and cut field trips, enrichment activities and other programs to pay its legal bills. Although the district had insurance at the time of the abuse, the company has since gone out of business and its current insurance company won’t cover old claims.

The perpetrator is dead and the district staff has turned over 100% since the incidents occurred. Years ago, the district instituted strict protocols for abuse claims, immediately contacting the police and placing the alleged perpetrator on leave until an investigation is complete.

Rigby worries about how her district will survive. If the state takes it over, it’ll lose its school board and superintendent, and further cuts will be inevitable.

“We believe all the victims need to be compensated for these heinous crimes,” Rigby said. “But AB 218 is causing current students and taxpayers to pay for crimes that happened 50 years ago, that they had nothing to do with. There has to be a better solution.”

Legislative solution?

Several current bills in the Legislature would curb the law, at least somewhat. A bill by Sen. John Laird, , would bring back a statute of limitations, make it easier for districts to issue bonds to pay off settlements and take other steps to give some relief to school districts and other public agencies. But it doesn’t cap attorneys’ fees or settlements.

The political reality, Laird said, is that there’s not enough support in the Legislature to limit legal settlements in abuse cases.

“We’re trying to walk between the poles of avoiding billions of dollars in settlements, while not neglecting the rights of victims,” said Laird, a Democrat from Santa Cruz.

The bill passed the Senate and is now in the Assembly judiciary committee.

Consumer Attorneys of California is neutral on the bill, but several school lobbying groups have opposed it, saying it doesn’t go far enough. One group, the Association of California School Administrators, would also like to see school districts share responsibility for paying settlements with the perpetrator or other groups that might be involved, such as sports or after-school organizations. The group also wants the state to study the possibility of a victims’ fund that’s not entirely monetary; it could also include mental and physical health services.

The abuse settlements are the worst financial threat to school districts since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, said Mike Fine, director of the Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team, which advises the state and school districts on financial matters.

His that the state create a database of abuse claims as well as teachers who have been accused, to prevent perpetrators from bouncing from one district to another. The group also recommends more flexibility on settlement payment plans, and an alternative to state takeover for districts that are out of money.

Like Laird, Fine’s group is not calling for a cap on settlements or attorney fees. “We didn’t think tort reform was within our scope,” Fine said.

They’re also not calling for a state-financed victims’ fund, something school districts have asked for. Laird said the state lacks the money for such a fund. Fine’s group omitted it from its recommendations because a victims’ fund could preclude a trial, and Fine said that victims should have a right to go to court and have their voices heard.

But schools’ top priority, Fine said, should be setting tough protocols to prevent abuse from happening in the first place. Although some districts have instituted safeguards, not all have, and the state doesn’t have a uniform policy because it’s deemed a local issue.

“Schools have to hold themselves to a higher standard, and we’ve clearly failed in this regard,” Fine said. “This simply has to stop.”

‘Prime time’ for trial attorneys

The sexual abuse law has been a windfall for trial attorneys. Billboards seeking clients have cropped up around the state, and lawyers from throughout the country have come to California to file claims.

Typically attorneys in abuse lawsuits work for free until there’s a resolution, and then collect a portion of the payout if the plaintiff prevails — in some instances up to 40%, depending on the complexity of the case.

Dorothy Johnson, legislative advocate for the Association of California School Administrators, called the current scenario “prime time” for trial attorneys in California, but forcing impossible burdens onto school districts and other agencies. Schools are already contending with financial hardships due to declining enrollment, the end of pandemic relief funds and federal education cuts. These settlements are pushing some districts over the edge — while attorneys are making millions, she said.

“We don’t think trial attorneys should be profiting at the expense of current students,” Johnson said. “We want to make sure victims get resolution but at the same time put some guardrails up. Right now, there are no guardrails.”

The trial attorneys’ association is not opposed to changes in the law, as long as victims’ rights aren’t curtailed, said Nancy Peverini, legislative director for California Consumer Attorneys.

“There’s an understanding that we need to find a balance, but it’s really important that survivors’ voices don’t get lost,” Peverini said.

Hard choices in Montecito

Montecito — a scenic enclave near Santa Barbara — is home to Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. With sweeping views of the Pacific and Santa Ynez mountains, it’s one of the most affluent and exclusive towns in the country. Its school district, however, is facing financial calamity and a possible state takeover.

Montecito Union Elementary District serves about 350 students, mostly children from affluent families but also the children of Montecito’s landscapers and housekeepers. Earlier this year, it took in 42 students from Pacific Palisades, which was largely destroyed in a wildfire.

In 2023, three former students sued the district over sexual abuse they said they experienced from 1972-76. The district denied the claim, and is negotiating a settlement. The payout and legal costs could swell to $20 million — more than the district’s annual budget. Even a state loan wouldn’t solve the problem, because the payments would be more than the district can afford, according to Fine’s organization.

The district’s insurance company at the time of the alleged abuse no longer exists, and its current insurer doesn’t cover events from that long ago. That means that like Carpinteria Unified, Montecito will have to pay the entire cost — cutting programs, borrowing money and using reserves.

“First of all, there’s a whole lot of empathy. We were heartbroken to hear these allegations,” Superintendent Anthony Ranii said. “But none of us were here then. Many of us weren’t even born. The alleged perpetrator and witnesses are dead. We’re putting the responsibility for something that might or might not have happened in 1972 100% on the heads of students in 2025. That’s not fair.”

‘We need awareness’

For Muñoz, the abuse she suffered during the 2004-05 school year took more than a decade to come to terms with. Even after the abuse stopped, Muñoz found school difficult, socially and academically. She lost trust in adults and emotionally withdrew. She never talked about what happened, not even to her family.

Neng Yang, the teacher whom Muñoz said abused her, was arrested and tried in 2014 on 45 counts of sexual abuse on a child under age 10, based on testimony from numerous victims who were students at Fancher Creek Elementary. He was and is serving a 38-year sentence.

Muñoz only started talking about the abuse a few years ago, when she started reading about the impacts of childhood abuse. Earlier this year, she got a call from Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, a Washington-based law firm, that was investigating claims from another of Yang’s victims for a potential suit against Clovis Unified.

She decided to share her story with the attorneys and join the lawsuit.

“I just want other victims to know that they’re not the only ones,” Muñoz said. “It’s OK to talk about it. We need awareness if there’s going to be change.”

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These tragedies are largely preventable. Groundbreaking tells us that nearly every instance of child sexual abuse takes place after the perpetrator has engaged in multiple grooming behaviors to form a trusting relationship with the child and then later exploit them. 

If educators and parents know what to look for — especially the “red flag” behaviors that almost always coincide with abuse — we could save hundreds of thousands of kids each year.

Child sexual abuse is rarely an isolated or random incident. A recent study of over 1,000 victims confirmed that 99% of them experienced some form of grooming before their abuse. Of — ranging from gift-giving to seemingly innocent touching to sharing pornography — victims experienced 14 such behaviors on average before the actual abuse occurred.

In other words, there are typically more than a dozen distinct warning signs that could tip off a teacher, coach, parent, or other concerned adult that something isn’t right.

Certain are especially critical to recognize. that these high-risk grooming behaviors are overwhelmingly common in instances of child sexual abuse. 

These behaviors include watching a child undressing, showing pornography to a child, talking to a child about past sexual experiences, and undressing or exposing oneself or encouraging a child to do so. But red flags also include behaviors that may not be as obvious, like isolating a child from family and peers or attempting to acclimate a child to their touch while distracting them with another activity, such as a hand “accidentally” brushing a private part while wrestling.

All of these behaviors always warrant intervention with the child’s parents or educators and often warrant reporting possible abuse to the authorities.

School staff and parents should commit each of these behaviors to memory, especially when children are joining an activity that involves a new adult in their lives. Teachers, for instance, can be especially vigilant at the start of a new school year or when students begin a new sport. In addition, parents should be especially alert when their children take music lessons, start other new classes or join a faith-based youth group. Parents and educators should discuss these behaviors with coaches, teachers, youth advisors, and each other.

Behavior such as hugging a child may be innocuous and healthy — or a precursor to something nefarious. It can be challenging to know when to intervene. But victims’ stories often take the form of “first A, then B, then C.” Grooming toward abuse is a cumulative process. It’s critical for adults to stay vigilant about whether an adult’s actions toward a child are progressing toward red flag behaviors.

That’s why we must also teach children the warning signs of grooming.

Parents shouldn’t shy away from discussing red flag behaviors with their children in developmentally appropriate ways. For example, book series like can help children of all ages learn about safe and unsafe touch, body boundaries, and trusting their gut when something doesn’t feel right.

Most states, but not all, supplement what parents teach their children with legislation like, which requires K-12 public schools to implement sexual abuse prevention education for children of all ages.

But states often lack rigor and consistency in how they enforce these laws. In Washington state, for example, an oversight board identified 38 different curricula in place statewide – a majority of which neglected to give educators resources for what to do if a student disclosed abuse. Every curriculum should include the latest evidence-based research on grooming.

Unfortunately, not every state requires prevention education for teachers, but that’s equally imperative. on one training program for educators, Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children, found that teachers who completed the training increased their reporting of previously unrecognized abuse by 82%.

Teachers and parents alike should make sure kids know that they won’t be blamed for reporting behaviors that make them uneasy, since abusers often tell children to keep it a secret.

To stop abuse before it occurs, all adults in a child’s life must be able to identify potential grooming behavior, especially the red flags. With an average of 14 different grooming behaviors preceding each case of child sexual abuse, prevention is possible. We just have to know what to look for.