The California Supreme Court has ruled that some former elementary students can sue the Marysville Joint Unified School over allegations of sexual assault, according to court documents released earlier this month.
The case, Doe v. Marysville Joint Unified School District – filed at the Yuba County Superior Court on July 2 – contends that the students were sexually assaulted on district property by William Babcock, a former licensed counselor at Walter Kynoch Elementary School.
Meanwhile, the district declined to elaborate on its position regarding the case citing the developing litigation.
“The Marysville Joint Unified School District is aware of the allegations outlined in this matter, which involve events reported to have occurred more than 25 years ago,” the District said in a statement on the matter this week. “Because this concerns active litigation, the District cannot provide further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
Babcock is alleged to have assaulted the former students, whose names do not appear in the filings, between 1993 and 2001, according to court records.
The case had been complicated by a federal ruling that blocked plaintiffs from filing the same claim twice, but was freed up after the California Supreme Court ruled that the “two-dismissal rule” does not prevent plaintiffs from filing a new case in California court, giving the former students the opportunity to file their claims to state courts a second time.
Kynock was arrested following a month-long investigation into the claim he molested four students. He was booked into Yuba County Jail on four counts of child molestation in lieu of $100,000 bail, according to police records from the time.
Babcock, also a former counselor at Marysville’s Presbyterian Family Counseling Center at the time, was eventually sentenced to 22 years in prison and ordered to pay roughly $7,000 in fines and restitution. He had no prior criminal history before the case and was eligible for his first parole hearing in 2021, the paper also noted in 2002.
The Appeal-Democrat will follow this story as it evolves.