‘Pass the trash’: California school district faces lawsuit over handling of sexual abuse case

Eleven victims have filed a civil lawsuit against a California school district alleging it covered up multiple sexual harassment complaints against a former teacher.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, accused the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District (ARUSD) of failing to prevent former music instructor Israel Santiago, 43, from sexually assaulting over 30 female students across three different schools within the district.

Santiago was arrested in 2022 on suspicion of sexually abusing 10 students at Adelante Dual Language Academy, a “TK-8” school in the district and eventually convicted of four felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child and nine counts of child molestation. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, according to San Fransisco’s KRON4 News.

However, this wasn’t the first school in the district where Santiago was accused of inappropriate contact with female students. Between 2012 and 2014, students at Sheppard Middle School and Painter Elementary School reported Santiago’s unseemly behavior to school staff.

According to the lawsuit, Santiago would frequently “invite female minors into his classroom during passing periods, lunch periods and after class and school hours” to engage in sexual behavior.

One student said Santiago rubbed her back while he praised her. Another student reported he hugged her, asked her for hugs and “picked her up, putting his arms under her legs and carrying her,” according to KQED.

Santiago was warned by district officials to stop “sexually touching female students” following the complaints, the suit says.

Despite the warnings, the inappropriate conduct continued, and in 2014 a disciplinary investigation was conducted by Sheppard Middle School Principal Imee Almazan. 

“Mr. Santiago has failed to practice good judgement regarding physical contact with students, in particular, females, and I find that conduct to be inappropriate and unprofessional,” Almazan concluded. 

Instead of reporting the allegations to the police, Almazan, along with Superintendent Stephen Fiss and Assistant Superintendent Ricardo Medina conspired to conceal Santiago’s behavior by relocating him to another school in the district, Adelante Academy, the suit alleges.  

The lawsuit described the administrators’ actions as an attempt to “pass the trash” to another school without informing parents and students of the risk Santiago posed to minors.  

The suit also claims that Almazan, recently promoted to interim superintendent of ARUSD, deleted evidence of Fiss instructing Medina not to report the investigation findings. 

“At 12:13 p.m., I received a call from Ricardo [Medina] stating that Superintendent Fiss did not want to contact the police regarding this matter at this time,” the recovered reference states.  

Morgan Stewart, the victims’ attorney, condemned the district, stating that Santiago should have been reported to authorities. 

“This is a clear conspiracy to cover this up, keep it quiet, not report it to the police,” Stewart said, according to KQED. “He’s touching females. He’s making them uncomfortable. 

“He’s acting in a sexually inappropriate manner with 12- and 13-year-olds. And there’s a direction from the superintendent not to call the police on that.” 

The youngest victim listed in the lawsuit was born in June 2013. 

According to KRON4, Santiago has been serving his current prison sentence in Corcoran, California since December and will have his first parole hearing in 2028.