A San Francisco Bay Space college district has changed a center college math instructor for the rest of the tutorial 12 months following an investigation by KQED and ProPublica that confirmed he had been accused of inappropriately touching college students at two earlier jobs.
The Redwood Metropolis Faculty District has acquired no less than two new complaints towards Jason Agan, in accordance with the dad and mom who filed the complaints in addition to emails from the district to the dad and mom saying it’s investigating each.
The information retailers discovered that the state instructor licensing company allowed Agan to maintain his credentials following his 2019 firing from a highschool within the Fairfield-Suisun Unified Faculty District for what district officers characterised as sexual harassment of feminine college students. Not less than 11 college students and one guardian at Angelo Rodriguez Excessive Faculty submitted written complaints about Agan’s habits to high school directors, drawing no less than two warnings to cease, KQED and ProPublica’s investigation discovered.
College students in that district testified throughout Agan’s dismissal listening to that he made them uncomfortable by massaging their neck or shoulders in addition to commenting on feminine college students’ clothes, prompting an impartial panel to deem him “unfit to show,” in accordance with information obtained by the information retailers.
The Fee on Instructor Credentialing, the company liable for educators’ licenses, suspended Agan’s educating license for seven days in 2021, after he had already gotten one other job educating math at Ephraim Williams Faculty Prep Center Faculty within the Fortune community of constitution faculties in Sacramento, an hour away from his first college.
The self-discipline — together with a crimson flag icon — is famous within the state’s public database of credentialed educators, however no particular cause is given for the sanction. Anybody looking his identify within the database would see he nonetheless held credentials indicating he was legally match to show.
At Ephraim Williams, Agan’s second college, he drew one other grievance of undesirable touching, prompting a written warning from Fortune’s human assets guide. He left the college in June 2022 and began educating math at Clifford Faculty, a prekindergarten by way of eighth grade college in Redwood Metropolis, that August. That’s the place he was educating when the investigation was printed.
David Weekly, president of the college board in Redwood Metropolis, informed KQED and ProPublica on Saturday that the board plans to assessment the district’s hiring course of after Clifford dad and mom, in a public letter, known as for such a assessment and for a third-party investigation into whether or not district officers have been conscious of prior complaints towards Agan.
“Mother and father should know their youngsters are protected and to know that the district is doing job fastidiously vetting those that will probably be working carefully with their youngsters,” Weekly stated in a written assertion to the information retailers.
Redwood Metropolis Faculty District Superintendent John Baker informed the Clifford Faculty group on Thursday that the district has enlisted a third-party investigator to assessment its hiring practices and procedures, in accordance with a letter that the district spokesperson shared with the information retailers.
Deputy superintendent Wendy Kelly beforehand informed KQED and ProPublica that the district, when hiring, usually calls candidates’ speedy supervisors and checks the database of licensed educators. She declined to reply questions on Agan’s hiring or say whether or not the college district was conscious he had been accused of misconduct at two earlier faculties.
Clifford principal Kristy Jackson emailed dad and mom within the hours after the story was printed to stipulate the district’s hiring insurance policies and stated that whereas she couldn’t focus on confidential personnel issues, “So far, I’ve not had any considerations about this worker associated to scholar security.”
Agan, who has not been accused of against the law, didn’t reply to requests for remark concerning the new complaints after he was faraway from the college. Nor did he beforehand reply to questions despatched by way of e-mail and authorized mail to his residence about college students’ accusations and his job historical past. He has denied any sexual motivation in touching college students, stating throughout his dismissal listening to from the Fairfield-Suisun Unified Faculty District that he touched college students’ shoulders to supply them assist and encouragement however that he didn’t therapeutic massage them.
Greater than a dozen dad and mom confirmed up at Clifford the morning after the story printed final week to specific concern about Agan’s employment to the principal, in accordance with two dad and mom who have been there. Simply earlier than midday that very same day, Jackson and Baker emailed the Clifford Faculty group saying that the district would “quickly be welcoming a substitute instructor to assist college students in Mr. Agan’s classroom.”
A Redwood Metropolis college district spokesperson stated a substitute was introduced in to show Agan’s courses beginning Could 13 however declined to touch upon his employment standing. The spokesperson didn’t reply a query concerning the new complaints.
Mother and father expressed “profound alarm and outrage” and in addition demanded Agan’s speedy resignation or elimination from any place involving contact with college students, in accordance with their letter to the Clifford principal, college board, state lawmakers, California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and the instructor licensing company. Greater than 170 folks signed the letter, in accordance with a guardian concerned in organizing the petition.
“We acknowledge the seriousness of those issues and consider that transparency, accountability, and scholar security should take priority over institutional fame or legal responsibility considerations,” the dad and mom wrote. “Youngsters deserve studying environments the place they’re protected, revered, and guarded. Mother and father and guardians deserve honesty and accountability from the establishments entrusted with their youngsters’s care.”
Brie Hanni, a guardian who signed the letter, stated she broke down after studying about Agan’s disciplinary historical past and pulled her seventh grade daughter, who was in Agan’s class, out of faculty the day KQED and ProPublica printed the story.
Hanni says Agan’s case illustrates a systemic hole in transparency, and the state ought to specify the explanations educators are disciplined.
The licensing our bodies governing dozens of different professions in California, together with docs, nurses, law enforcement officials and legal professionals, make the explanations that disciplinary actions have been imposed simply accessible on their web sites. And no less than 12 states, together with Oregon, Washington and Florida, do the identical for academics.
“I believe a statewide, if not nationwide, query is: What do you do with these academics who’re ‘unfit to show’?” Hanni stated.
Thurmond, who’s working for governor, informed KQED and ProPublica that any instructor who “abuses or harasses college students ought to by no means train once more.” Thurmond stated that as governor, he would suggest laws to routinely revoke licenses for educators discovered by faculties or impartial panels to have dedicated sexual harassment. A spokesperson for his marketing campaign stated the laws could be retroactive.
Xavier Becerra, the previous U.S. well being and human companies secretary, former state legal professional normal and a number one candidate for California governor, “believes California ought to have a system that acts swiftly, prioritizes the safety of scholars, and offers dad and mom and faculties confidence that severe misconduct is being dealt with appropriately and transparently,” stated Jonathan Underland, Becerra’s marketing campaign spokesperson, in a press release.
“Scholar security has to come back first,” Underland stated. “The allegations described on this reporting are deeply disturbing, and no scholar or household ought to ever really feel unsafe at college.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s spokespeople didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Agan’s case and the state’s disciplinary course of for educators. Neither did six different gubernatorial candidates looking for to interchange him.
State Sen. Josh Becker, who represents Redwood Metropolis, shared ProPublica and KQED’s investigation on social media and wrote: “Fully unacceptable. What’s going on right here? The legislature must dig into this which incorporates me.”
A spokesperson for Becker stated he was not accessible for remark this week.
Throughout a Redwood Metropolis college board assembly final week, Clifford guardian Josh Levinson stated he had submitted a Title IX grievance towards Agan to the district after studying the article and talking along with his seventh grade son. Title IX is the federal regulation that prohibits sex-based discrimination and harassment in faculties.
“What I’ve heard from my son is that this sample hasn’t modified,” Levinson stated on the board assembly, referencing Agan’s historical past of misconduct claims. “When somebody’s deemed unfit to show, that must be a large crimson flag, not one thing brushed apart as a result of the database says they’re technically employable.”
Levinson declined to discuss the specifics of his grievance.
One other Clifford guardian, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to guard his baby’s identification, informed the information retailers that he additionally filed a grievance towards Agan after studying the article and talking along with his baby. The guardian stated his baby reported seeing Agan contact college students’ shoulders and yell throughout class.
In his job utility to Redwood Metropolis that the district shared with KQED and ProPublica, Agan didn’t disclose that he had been fired from Rodriguez Excessive; as a substitute, he wrote that he left as a result of he “needed to discover new challenges and alternatives.” He additionally checked a “Please don’t contact” field below Rodriguez Excessive.
Kelly, the Redwood Metropolis deputy superintendent, stated in a earlier interview that the district contacts prior employers even when candidates instruct them to not. She additionally stated that college districts belief the Fee on Instructor Credentialing to vet academics, and people whose credentials are legitimate are thought-about employable.
In his earlier utility to show at Ephraim Williams, Agan did acknowledge that he had been fired from Rodriguez Excessive after being “accused of inappropriately touching college students on the shoulders throughout class.” He wrote that he disagreed with the dismissal and defined that he would usually place his arms on college students’ shoulders whereas serving to them.
A spokesperson for the state’s instructor licensing company, Anita Fitzhugh, has emphasised that state regulation limits what data the company can share. Solely after the company recommends educators be disciplined can it launch its findings, which embody a abstract of the case, to potential employers. However that data is launched provided that a faculty requests it inside 5 years of when the self-discipline was beneficial. In Agan’s case, that window handed earlier this 12 months.
Redwood Metropolis didn’t ask for such findings earlier than hiring Agan in 2022, in accordance with logs of requests made throughout that point that the instructor licensing company supplied to KQED and ProPublica.
Kelly beforehand confirmed that the college had not requested the findings, saying that she found solely final 12 months that it might accomplish that.
Agan is one in all no less than 67 educators for whom the state has not revoked skilled licenses after college districts decided that they had sexually harassed college students or dedicated different kinds of misconduct of a sexual nature, in accordance with a assessment of accessible information from 2019 by way of 2025 obtained by the information retailers.
If in case you have expertise with the state’s opaque instructor disciplinary course of, KQED and ProPublica need to hear from you.
