Articles Posted in School Teacher Sexual Abuse

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The sexual abuse legal team at Cerri, Boskovich & Allard is investigating sexual abuse claims against two Salinas educators. If you are a victim of former Harden Middle School teacher Robert Dunham or John Fickas, call our office. The call is confidential.

Robert Dunham was convicted and sentenced for abusing multiple students. The DA’s office issued a statement following his sentencing, stating that Dunham had a history of inappropriate conduct aimed at students and other minor children with whom he had been trusted.

Fickas is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for raping and sodomizing four girls or women and for oral copulation on a teenage boy he coached at North Salinas High School. Fickas coached the girls’ junior varsity field hockey team and also acted as the varsity shot put coach for the track and field team at North Salinas High School.

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Two alleged victims of former teachers Gary Bettencourt and Dusty Norris seek to hold the enablers of their predators accountable for their sexual abuse.

The law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard has filed a sexual abuse lawsuit in Merced County Superior Court alleging that former Merced County educators, Gary Bettencourt and Dusty Norris, sexually abused two young students.

Identified as Jane Doe 1 in the lawsuit, the complaint alleges that Norris abused her during the 2004-2005 school year. At the time Norris was employed by the Merced County of Education (MCOE) as an ROP teacher at Los Banos High School.

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Sexual abuse victim was in second grade when she was sexually abused starting in 2006

The law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard has filed a sexual abuse lawsuit in Butte County Superior Court alleging the Thermalito Union Elementary School District was negligent for failing to protect an eight-year-old second grade student.

The student is identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit. She was abused between 2006-2009 at Poplar Avenue Elementary School in Thermalito, which is near Oroville.

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A total of five victims now accuse former Sierramont Middle School teacher Ronald Gardner of sexual abuse.

The law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard filed an amended lawsuit this week in Santa Clara County Superior Court (Case No. 22CV401151) on behalf of another sexual abuse victim of Sierramont Middle School teacher Ronald Gardner. The victims in the case allege that the Berryessa Union School District in San Jose was negligent in failing to protect Sierramont Middle School students from sexual abuse.

The new victim is identified as John Doe 3 in the civil lawsuit.

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In one of the largest civil jury verdicts in Santa Clara County history, the Union School District in San Jose has been ordered to pay $102.5 million to two young women who were sexually abused by former Dartmouth Middle School band director Samuel Neipp.

The school district has sought to overturn the verdict.

“It’s a high number but we’ve shown the court the verdict is justified,” attorney Lauren Cerri said. Ms. Cerri, from San Jose-based Cerri, Boskovich & Allard, represented one of the two women in the case.

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A Marin County jury ruled that the Tamalpais Union High School District was 100 percent negligent for the 2003 sexual abuse of a then-high school student by its then PE teacher and tennis coach Normandie Burgos (Marin County Superior Court, Case# CIV2001133). It awarded the student $10 million.

The student, Alexander Harrison, is now 36 years old.

His lawsuit against the Tamalpais Union High School District was filed in March 2020 by the San Jose-based law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard under the auspices of AB 218, which extends the statute of limitations to allow older child sexual abuse cases to be filed through December 2022.

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Teacher showed no remorse for abusing as many as 40 male students

When Dennis Thomas started teaching at Cinnabar Elementary School in San Jose, it wasn’t long before school officials became aware that he was befriending young boys and taking them to his home or to places like the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz.

One time he even took a student on a Mexican cruise and he often sexually abused students at school – making boys sit on his lap, and inappropriately rubbing and touching them.

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Student who was brutally raped by Los Gatos elementary school teacher joins lawsuit

A horrific story of sexual abuse is detailed in an amended lawsuit against the Los Gatos Union School District and former fifth grade teacher Joseph Brian Houg.

The amended lawsuit, Case No. 21CV388845, was filed against the school district and Houg in Santa Clara County Superior Court by San Jose-based Cerri, Boskovich and Allard.

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Another victim of former Piedmont Hills High School track coach Chioke Robinson is coming forward with her story of sexual abuse.

In a newly filed amended lawsuit, Jane Doe 2 claims that Robinson began sexually grooming her in the 2009-2010 school year and that Robinson sexually abused her starting in the 2010-2011 school year and continuing through the 2011-2012 school year.

The lawsuit states that the abuse escalated from inappropriate massages to sexual intercourse.

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Victim’s parents call for transparency, accountability and policies to keep students safe from sexual predators.   

The Los Gatos Union School District and a former fifth grade teacher, Joseph Brian Houg, are being sued by the parents of a 10-year-old child who was sexually abused by Houg.

Due to the boy’s age and the sensitive nature of the allegations, the suit was filed anonymously on behalf of “John Doe.”

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