Nine former Rosemead High students sue, alleging sexual abuse

A second group of former Rosemead High School students has sued the El Monte Union High School District for the alleged sexual abuse they experienced as minors at the hands of their teachers, athletic coaches and other employees.

Nine women filed suit Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging abuse that took place from 1992 to 2003, when the women were teenagers.

Their complaint comes two months after three other women sued the school district, alleging a culture that allowed and protected sexual abusers at the school between 2005 and 2011. These women claimed that teachers and district employees groomed their victims, and that administrators did not report the allegations to police when the students came forward with them, according to the lawsuit.

The nine women claim in the new lawsuit that their complaints were ignored or that school administrators conducted internal investigations that ultimately went nowhere.

Women who say they were victims of sexual abuse by employees at Rosemead High School, photographed to avoid revealing their identities, at a news conference Wednesday.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

One woman said she was targeted in the 1990s by multiple employees who made inappropriate actions toward her, but she couldn’t find help from people she trusted at her school.

“It was my mentor that I turned to, and my mentor became my rapist,” the woman said during a news conference Wednesday at the Carrillo Law Firm, which is representing the women in their lawsuit.

“Our voices should have mattered,” she said.

She was surprised to see that the other women named in the lawsuit were younger than her, meaning that the alleged abuse did not end with her class and continued for years.

The women are identified as Jane Does in the complaint, and they asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from any supporters of the men whose names appear in the complaint. The Times’ policy is not to name victims of sexual assault who do not want to be identified.

For years, some of the women did not realize that they were victims of sexual abuse until a startling article brought them back to what they had endured, they said.

The lawsuit cites “The Predator’s Playground” by Business Insider journalist Matt Drange, a Rosemead High School alumnus, who initially reported on sexual abuse allegations made against his former journalism advisor. Drange’s article described a culture of inappropriate actions openly carried out by teachers and school employees — an environment where teachers sent inappropriate text messages to their students and administrators ignored complaints for years.

Teachers told students that they should wear revealing clothes or that they had “bedroom eyes,” according to the complaint.

The women accused the district of negligence for allegedly allowing the perpetrators to continue to abuse their victims. These men were “cloaked within the facade of normalcy” at the school district, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit seeks damages only from the school district, although it identifies a number of the teachers and staffers whom the women accused of abusing them. The El Monte Union High School District did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

From left, attorneys Dominique L. Boubion, Michael S. Carrillo, Luis A. Carrillo and Mohammed Abdulla, who are representing nine women who are suing the El Monte Union High School District, at a news conference Wednesday.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

A lawsuit filed in May on behalf of three women named Rosemead High tennis coach Wing Chan, former teacher Alex Rai and former cross-country coach Eduardo Escobar as defendants, along with the school district.

Attorney Luis Carrillo said that the statute of limitations for bringing criminal charges related to the alleged abuses has lapsed. The district continues to contest the allegations, according to an internal email that was shared by the law firm during the news conference.

During the news conference, the women tearfully relayed how the abuse they experienced as students has affected their lives in a multitude of ways that they cannot fully describe.

As students, they said, they were worried about becoming pregnant by their teachers and mentors. The lived with fear and anxiety about calling unwanted attention to themselves. One of their abusers claimed that if they revealed what was happening, it would ruin his career and family life, according to the women.

The consequences of the school’s grooming culture, the victims said, have rippled through their lives for years.

She said there was “nothing more terrifying” knowing that some of the men who target young girls are still employed at the school district. Speaking to any current students at Rosemead High School who may be victims and not know it themselves, she said, “Please know that you’re not alone.”