District Alleges Ex-Coach Also Had Sexual Liaison With Student in Mid-’70s

A former Ventura High School swim coach accused of having sex with two students in recent years also had an ongoing sexual relationship with a pupil in the mid-1970s, according to a district document filed with state officials Thursday.

In the 1974-75 school year--one year after Dale Hahn began teaching at Ventura High--he and a student had sex two or more times a week, usually in his apartment after school but at least once in his classroom, the school district alleges.

Hahn, who was then in his mid-20s, continued his relationship with the student for at least nine months, the district says.

School officials hope that these new allegations filed with the state Office of Administrative Hearings in Los Angeles will bolster the Ventura Unified School District’s case for firing Hahn. The district will present its arguments at a hearing convened by the state agency in July.

“It gives a profile of information that enables me to see that, if true, it’s been an ongoing thing” of Hahn having sex with students, Supt. Joseph Spirito said of the new allegations.

But it is uncertain whether the state will permit the district to enter the new accusations at the July hearing, which will be held in Ventura.

State law forbids school districts from firing teachers for actions that occurred more than four years before. If the administrative law judge who presides over Hahn’s hearing holds strictly to this law, the district will not be able to use either the new allegations or previous testimony about an alleged sexual relationship between the teacher and a student in the 1980s, school officials said.

Hahn, 45, taught chemistry and coached the swim and water polo teams at Ventura High from 1973 until the fall, when he was put on paid leave. He was suspended without pay in January.

He could not be reached for comment on the new allegations.

In initial accusations filed by the district in January, officials alleged that the teacher had sex with two students--one who graduated in 1989 and another who was enrolled at the school as recently as last fall.

School officials also charged that Hahn made advances and sexually suggestive comments to students and that, despite repeated warnings, he used profanity while coaching the water polo and swim teams.

The student who graduated in 1989 has told school officials that she and the teacher had sex only once in December, 1988, although Hahn continued to write and call her after she went to college until the spring of 1990, according to the district’s list of allegations.

Except for the testimony from this young woman and the new allegations from the woman who was a student in 1974-75, the district’s only other evidence of Hahn having sex with students pertains to a case in this school year.

A male student at Ventura High School told officials that one of his female friends at the school had sex with Hahn in the fall.

But the male student has so far refused to identify the girl, and no female student has stepped forward to verify the story, said Mary Jo McGrath, an attorney hired by the school district.

District officials hope that they will be allowed to present testimony about the alleged relationships in the 1970s and 1980s on the basis that school officials had no knowledge about the cases until recently.

“There is precedence for such old evidence holding up in a hearing,” McGrath said.

District officials learned of Hahn’s alleged relationships with students through an investigation launched in the fall after a female student complained that the teacher had made suggestive comments to her.

Hahn’s relationship with the student in the 1974-75 school year began in the fall, according to the district’s list of allegations.

He gave the student a key to his apartment and she came to his home at least three times a week throughout the school year, it was alleged.

On most of these visits, the two had sex, the district alleges. District officials believe that Hahn and the girl also had sex in his classroom after school on at least one occasion, according to the filing.

In addition to the woman’s testimony about her relationship with Hahn, a Ventura man who was on the school’s water polo team has corroborated her story. The man told school officials that Hahn said he had “gone to bed” with the student.

Hahn was not married at the time of this or any of the other alleged sexual relationships with students. He married Camille Hertel in 1982, and they were divorced in 1988 after having two children.