California reaches proposed settlement with school district that mishandled student sex abuse claims, state AG says
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California has reached a sweeping proposed settlement agreement mandating new oversight measures at an L.A.County school district with what it says is an extensive track record of turning a blind eye to students’ complaints of sexual assault by staff.
Atty.Gen.
Rob Bonta announced at a news conference Friday in downtown Los Angeles a proposed judgment with the El Monte Union High School District to implement “wide-ranging reforms” to prevent and address sexual harassment and abuse on the district’s campuses.The agreement follows the attorney general’s decision to open a Department of Justice investigation into the district in 2024 after a 2023 Business Insider article titled “The Predators’ Playground” reported 40 years of alleged sexual misconduct involving at least 20 educators at Rosemead High School.
The investigation reported alleged grooming so rampant that, in some cases, more than one educator targeted the same girl.“It was my mentor that I turned to, and my mentor became my rapist,” one woman said at a 2024 news conference announcing the filing of a lawsuit against the district, alleging a culture that allowed and protected sexual abusers.
“Our voices should have mattered,” she said.California A second group of former Rosemead High School students file suit alleging the school district failed to protect them from employees who sexually assaulted them.In the wake of the Business Insider report, more than a dozen female accusers have taken legal action claiming the district systematically covered up years of sexual abuse perpetrated by employees in the ’90s and 2000s and failed to report their claims to police.The state’s investigation focused on 2018 to the fall of 2025 and revealed that the district continued to regularly violate laws intended to protect against and address allegations of sexual harassment.
The investigation includes the r...