The El Monte Union High School District is facing a lawsuit from students who say they were sexually abused by teachers at Rosemead High School.
Three women filed suit on Monday, but they’re far from alone in detailing sexually predatory behavior from teachers at Rosemead.
Business Insider reporter Matt Drange, an alumnus of Rosemead, wrote a series of articles over the past few years detailing numerous allegations against multiple teachers and leadership’s alleged inaction in handling the misconduct.
A report from October titled “The predator’s playground” said “all of this behavior likely violated district policy; some of it was criminal.”
“Altogether, I corroborated dozens of instances of sexual misconduct, involving 20 different educators, ranging from lewd remarks about students’ bodies to statutory rape,” Drange wrote. “Grooming was so rampant that in a couple of cases, more than one educator targeted the same girl. Two teachers appear to have maintained sexual relationships with more than one student at the same time.”
Some of these incidents were never reported, but even when they were, the teachers did not fear being caught.
A woman named Barbara told Drange that when she asked one teacher about being “so open about his pursuit of teenage girls,” he told her “we don’t even get a slap on the wrist here for that.”
Michael Carrillo, an attorney representing the women, called the situation “a systemic failure.”
“From the top down, they do not know or they choose to ignore their duties as mandated reporters under the law of the state of California. They continue to violate the law by not immediately reporting child abuse, but instead conducting their own investigation,” Carrillo said.
The school district did not immediately return KTLA’s request for comment.