Sexual abuse by coaches and teachers at Rosemead High School cited in lawsuit filed by former students

The alleged sexual abuse of three Rosemead High School students from their freshman to senior years by three coaches and teachers is at the heart of a negligence lawsuit filed against the teachers and their employer, the El Monte Union High School District.

The plaintiffs, identified in the lawsuit only by the initials CH, DC and JL, attended Rosemead High from 2005 to 2011. They are currently between 31 and 33 years old.

“This is about misconduct by coaches and teachers and a culture of concealment of that misconduct by administrators across the district for years,” said Luis Carrillo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs’ names were excluded from court records because they were minors at the time of the incident. In addition to the school district, defendants in the lawsuit include former Rosemead High tennis coach Wing Chan, former teacher Alex Rai and former cross country coach Eduardo Escobar.

The lawsuit, which was filed May 6 in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Pomona, accuses the three of unlawful childhood sexual assault, molestation, molestation and various types of inappropriate conduct.

We were unable to obtain comment on any of the three. Neither did El Monte Union Supt. Edward Zuniga or Associate Senior Human Resources Officer Robin Torres responded to requests for comment.

Read more:Prosecutors say a Rosemead High School coach sexually abused a student for years

The lawsuit alleges that Rai began grooming CH during her junior and senior years of high school, in 2008-2009. He is also accused of sending her explicit photos of himself and repeatedly touching her in a sexual manner.

DC was 14 and 15 years old in 2008 and 2009 when her alleged abuse began as a member of the cross-country team coached by Escobar. The lawsuit alleges Escobar pulled down DC’s shorts and touched her sexually, allegedly helping her relieve leg cramps.

DC reported the harassment to Rai, who in turn informed the school administration. According to the lawsuit, administrators investigated but did not report the child abuse to police.

The lawsuit accuses Rai of groping DC on campus until she graduated in 2011, and then having a sexual relationship with DC at his home a year after she graduated.

The lawsuit states that JL was sexually harassed during her first year of college, and that Chan was the perpetrator. In addition to seducing JL, the lawsuit accuses Chan of having sex with her when she was a minor.

The lawsuit alleges that “it was so well known on campus that Chan was having sex with J.L. that almost all students and faculty knew about the relationship but did nothing to stop him or prevent the harassment.” The lawsuit states that the lewd acts occurred between 2005 and 2009.

Read more:‘Every woman’s worst nightmare’: lawsuit alleges widespread sexual abuse of women in California prisons

All three plaintiffs reported low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, feelings of helplessness, difficulty sleeping and flashbacks since the alleged abuse.

“They survived, but they are still recovering,” Carrillo said. “When a child experiences trauma at a young age, it can often have lifelong consequences.”

The lawsuit said the district “should have known that the perpetrators had engaged in unlawful sexual conduct with minors.” It goes on to state that the district had a duty to inform parents about the abuse, but staff “negligently and/or intentionally withheld, concealed or failed to disclose the information.”

Carrillo said the district was full of “administrators turning a blind eye.”

To support its claims about school climate, the lawsuit cites the article “The Predator’s Playground” published by Business Insider journalist Matt Drange, graduate of Rosemead High School. The 89-page report, released on October 3, documents incidents of violence at Rosemead High dating back to the 1980s, involving 20 teachers and often resulting in minimal punishment.

“This case and the discovery of all this would not have been possible without Matt Drange,” Carrillo said. “We look forward to our day in court.”

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.