Ventura School Officials Say Coach Had Sex With Students

Ventura High School’s swimming coach had sex with two female students and made advances and sexually suggestive comments to others, school officials said in a document filed Thursday with the state.

Coach Dale Hahn also raised the grade of one of the girls he slept with to an A when it should have been a C or a D, according to the formal list of accusations.

In addition, the document accuses him of once discussing sex with his chemistry class for an entire period and purchasing alcohol for students, and recounts how he was warned repeatedly about yelling profanities while coaching the water polo and swim teams.

Hahn, who has been on paid leave since December, said Thursday, “There is nothing I want to say” about the allegations. His lawyer insisted there is no merit to the accusations.

Ventura police said they began an investigation of Hahn after they were contacted by school officials last month. Sgt. Bob Anderson said detectives plan to begin interviews in the next few days.

The allegations mark the second sex scandal at Ventura High School in the past 18 months. Football Coach Harvey Kochel, who had won more games than any coach in the school’s history, was convicted in January, 1993, of having unlawful sex with a 15-year-old student.

Hahn, 44, has taught science and coached swimming at Ventura High for 20 years. He is divorced and has two sons, said Richard Schwab, his lawyer.

The 15-page list of 90 allegations by the Ventura Unified School District was filed with the state Office of Administrative Hearings on Thursday as the district’s first step toward firing Hahn.

Attorney Mary Jo McGrath said she was hired by the school district to investigate Hahn after a female student told another Ventura High teacher of flirtatious comments Hahn allegedly had made.

The document said Hahn asked the girl, “Have you ever considered going out with me?”

The attorney said she found a former student who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Hahn when she was a senior, in the 1988-89 school year.

A male student told investigators that a female friend said she had slept with Hahn last fall, the document said.