School Officials Are Sued Over Teacher Accused as Molester

Parents of three children are suing the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach, claiming that school officials wrote a “glowing” recommendation for a teacher even though they suspected him of acting inappropriately around young boys.

The 27-year-old teacher, Jason Abhyankar, went on to a position in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and since has been charged with four criminal counts of molesting fourth-grade boys in both school districts. He has pleaded not guilty.

The lawsuit filed last week in Orange County Superior Court says Ocean View officials could have prevented the alleged molestations at Portola Hills Elementary in the Saddleback Valley district by disclosing any problems with Abhyankar. The suit is on behalf of two students at Portola Hills Elementary and one from Huntington Beach.

The parents are also suing Saddleback Valley and Newhall Unified School District, where Abhyankar taught before coming to Orange County. The lawsuit seeks $60 million in damages.

The lawsuit alleges that Abhyankar regularly “had excessive physical contact with certain boys” and “took boys off campus in his vehicle without permission” while at Village View Elementary School in Huntington Beach, where he taught from 1997 to 1999. He joined the faculty at Portola Hills in fall 1999.

Michael Luker, an assistant superintendent at Ocean View, and William Manahan, superintendent of Saddleback Valley Unified, both declined to comment on the lawsuit and the allegations.

Kenneth Schreiber, Abhyankar’s attorney in the criminal case, also declined to comment on the civil case. He added that he believes his client will be found innocent of the criminal charges.

Gary Gibeaut, an attorney for the Ocean View School District, confirmed that district officials had written Abhyankar a letter of recommendation but said he did not believe it was drafted in exchange for the teacher’s resignation.

Sheriff’s officials began investigating Abhyankar in January 2000, after a Portola Hills student complained that his teacher had touched him inappropriately. After looking into those allegations, authorities spoke with children in Abhyankar’s class at Portola Hills, as well as students who had been taught by Abhyankar the two previous years in Huntington Beach. They ultimately charged Abhyankar with molesting two students during the two years he taught at Village View Elementary and a second student from his fourth-grade class in the Saddleback Valley district.

A fifth allegation of molestation against Abhyankar was made in another lawsuit against the Ocean View and Saddleback Valley districts filed in January. School officials did not comment on that case. The district attorney’s office has filed charges relating to only four of the allegations.

A trial in the criminal case is scheduled for July. If convicted, Abhyankar could be sent to prison for up to 14 years and forced to register as a sex offender, said Tori Richards, spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.

“Ocean View knew it had a very bad teacher on its hands,” said attorney David Ring, who filed last week’s lawsuit. “Instead of protecting kids, they simply protected the district by letting him teach in another district without warning.”

Gibeaut said Village View Elementary parents had expressed “some concerns about Mr. Abhyankar” but that he did not know the nature of those complaints. The lawyer said he could not comment further until he had reviewed Abhyankar’s personnel file and discussed the allegations with district administrators.

The lawsuit says school officials at Village View Elementary documented several incidents in which the teacher committed “improper behavior with boys.”

In the fall of 1998, district officials confronted Abhyankar about these incidents, according to the lawsuit. He responded by threatening to sue them for defamation, the suit claims.

At that point, the lawsuit claims, district officials “offered to enter into an agreement with Abhyankar”: If he left the district, they would write him a letter of recommendation.

A few weeks later, Abhyankar told school officials he would resign at the end of the school year, the lawsuit said. For the duration of his year at Village View, school officials posted a full-time aide in Abhyankar’s classroom and instructed the aide never to leave the teacher alone with his students, the suit says.

The aide, Margaret Philippi, said in an interview Monday she was told to stay in the classroom if at all possible, but that administrators never told her that she could not leave the room, nor did they say they suspected Abhyankar of any wrongdoing.

Ocean View officials did not tell Saddleback Valley Unified of any concerns about Abhyankar, according to the lawsuit. Instead, Kristi Hickman, principal of Village View Elementary, wrote Abhyankar a positive letter of recommendation, the lawsuit claims.

According to a 1997 California Supreme Court ruling, school districts should not write letters of recommendation for employees that result in “foreseeable and substantial risk of physical harm to a third person.”

The lawsuit says the Newhall district should not have written Abhyankar a letter of recommendation to Ocean View and that Saddleback Valley should have investigated Abhyankar’s background more thoroughly before hiring him.