Kochel Sex Case Leads to School Inquiry : Ventura High: The district hires a specialist to determine if complaints against the convicted ex-coach were handled properly.

An investigation to determine if officials at Ventura High School mishandled complaints of sexual misconduct against football coach Harvey Kochel was opened Friday by the Ventura Unified School District.

Kochel, 48, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for having a sexual relationship with one of his students.

Court documents and testimony at his sentencing hearing revealed that female students had complained about sexual advances for more than 10 years, but no serious disciplinary action was ever taken against him despite repeated warnings from his superiors.

School officials have maintained that there was little they could do about Kochel, the winningest football coach in Ventura High School history, because no one was willing to cooperate in a police investigation.

The district, however, this week hired attorney Mary Jo McGrath, a specialist in sexual harassment cases, to investigate exactly how complaints against Kochel were handled at the school. McGrath began questioning administrators, teachers and students on Friday.

“We want to be sure that the school district is protecting all of our kids,” Supt. Joseph Spirito said. “We’re going to find out who knew what and when. If someone dropped the ball, then we’re going to deal with that.”

Once the investigation is completed, a report will be made to the school board, Spirito said. It was not known how long the investigation will take.

Among those expected to be questioned is Robert Cousar, who served as principal at the school from 1981 to 1991, when he retired. It was during Cousar’s tenure that most of the students’ complaints were made about Kochel’s behavior.

Cousar told The Times that he had lectured Kochel on several occasions about complaints, but could do nothing else without a witness or a victim willing to cooperate in an investigation.

“I had no concrete facts to deal with,” Cousar said. “There’s been allegations that he was not disciplined because he was a winning football coach. That’s hogwash. The fact of the matter is you still have to have proof.”

Still, Cousar insists he did everything he could to impress upon Kochel that the school took the complaints seriously.

After receiving a letter in 1987 from a witness who reported seeing a student having oral sex with Kochel in his car, Cousar said he immediately contacted Ventura police. He said, however, the subsequent investigation was dropped because the alleged victim and her parents refused to cooperate.

During this time, Cousar said he and Spirito, who had just been hired by the district as superintendent of education services, met with Kochel to discuss complaints and rumors about his behavior toward female students.

Kochel, employed with the district since 1973, was given a stern warning that if any of the allegations were found to be true, he would be fired and lose his teacher credentials.

But Asst. Principal Helena Reaves testified at Kochel’s sentencing that the school continued to receive complaints from female students as late as 1992. Complaints ranged from Kochel slapping a student on the buttocks to sitting on a girl’s legs during weight training.

When confronted, Kochel dismissed the girls’ accusations, saying they “misunderstood” about his touching them, Reaves told the court.

“He’d say yes, and he’d apologize,” Reaves testified. “He said he’d improve and correct the situation.”

Reaves testified that on one occasion she even gave Kochel a copy of the California teachers’ code of ethics.

In her investigation, McGrath said she hopes to determine if district or school officials ever consulted an attorney to discuss how best to deal with the complaints against Kochel.

McGrath, however, agreed with Cousar and other school officials that without a witness or a victim who is willing to testify in court that it is nearly impossible to suspend or fire a teacher suspected of criminal wrongdoing. She said it is just as difficult to reassign a teacher to a job where they would have less contact with students.

“Everyone is hot and heavy on the district right now without understanding all the guidelines you have to follow when dealing with public employees,” McGrath said.

“They’ve got extensive rights under collective bargaining,” she said. “You cannot just impose a penalty on a public employee without due process and just cause. And if you can’t get people to testify, then you have nothing.”

Kochel was finally arrested in September after the stepfather of a 15-year-old student found dozens of sexually explicit letters in her bedroom that had been written by the coach. The stepfather met with Spirito to discuss the issue and the superintendent immediately called police.

Kochel, who had a seven-month sexual relationship with the girl, later pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Saundra T. Brewer said it was the letters that Kochel wrote that proved to be the most damning evidence against him. Early letters were written in a way to coax the girl into a sexual relation, and later notes encouraged her to become more sexually aggressive.

“If we didn’t have the letters, I don’t think we would know his true character,” Brewer said. “He’s a cold, selfish individual. He warped her judgment. He brainwashed her and distorted her values.”

Underscoring how difficult it is to prosecute such cases, the victim told authorities that Kochel “was a wonderful person” and that she did not feel he should be punished for what she considered “normal human behavior,” according to the coach’s probation report.

“This just shows how much she was truly victimized,” Brewer said. “It’s like victims of child abuse. They will usually stand behind the parents. I think it will be awhile before she realizes the full impact of this.”

Meanwhile, the Ventura school district has just finished putting together a handbook for teachers and administrators on how to better deal with complaints of sexual harassment. Work on the handbook began before Kochel was arrested.

The district has also assembled an investigative team to look into charges of improper sexual behavior among students, teachers and staff members.

McGrath said she plans to work with the team to develop a series of questions that can be asked of potential harassment victims to better determine whether a complaint is legitimate.

Nanette Rufo, an official with the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, said 25 to 30 teachers a year lose their licenses because of convictions of sexual misconduct involving students.

“It’s a tiny fraction of the percentage of teachers in California,” she said. “But one is too many. This is one of the most serious kinds of misconduct.”

Once criminal charges are brought against a teacher, Rufo said her agency is notified and the teacher’s license is automatically suspended and will remain suspended until the individual is either convicted or acquitted.

Even if charges are dismissed, she said, the agency has the option of conducting its own investigation to determine whether the teacher’s license should still be revoked.

Rufo said Kochel will never be able to work in California as a teacher again. She said his criminal record will also follow him wherever he goes, making it almost impossible for him to work in education in other states.

Ventura school officials said they just want to put the Kochel case behind them.

“It’s like there’s been a death in the family,” Reaves said. “Our teachers have suffered, our students have suffered, now where do we go from here?”

Times staff writer Mack Reed contributed to this story.