{"id":393857,"date":"2026-07-10T20:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393857\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T20:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:30:09","slug":"california-school-districts-suspected-of-shielding-sex-predators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393857\/","title":{"rendered":"California school districts suspected of shielding sex predators"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Southern California school district and another one in the Central Valley were sent letters<\/a> by the Trump administration as part of a crackdown on districts that may have shielded teachers accused of sexual abuse and harassment, The California Post has learned.<\/p>\n

Tulare City Unified School District and Wilsona School District, located in Palmdale, were two of the districts warned under federal law to promptly investigate allegations of sexual abuse and harassment and block suspected predators from quietly moving to other schools \u2014 a practice known as \u201cpassing the trash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilsona School District is being probed. Wilsona School District<\/p>\n

\u201cOur schools must protect America\u2019s children. Parents should never have to wonder whether their kids\u2019 school employs and protects sexual predators,\u201d Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchools that receive federal funding have a duty to protect students, report sexual misconduct honestly, and follow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board President Scott Mark Schmerelson attends at a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) special board meeting on Monday, March 2, 2026. Ringo Chiu<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Unified School District has already been investigated<\/a> over rules that allegedly shielded predatory teachers. An agreement between the school district and the teachers\u2019 union guaranteed teachers accused of certain serious misconduct are reassigned \u2014 rather than immediately terminated or removed from student-facing positions \u2014 while investigations are pending.<\/p>\n

All three districts\u2019 alleged behaviors could cost California $50 million in federal funding if violations are found.<\/p>\n

The Post reached out to Tulare\u2019s and Wilsona\u2019s superintendents for comment. A spokeswoman for LAUSD previously said in a statement the district \u201ctakes all allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment with the utmost seriousness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district \u201cfollows established Title IX procedures and other applicable laws and regulations, which are designed to ensure a fair, thorough, and impartial process for all parties,\u201d the spokeswoman added. \u00a0<\/p>\n

US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The two California districts that received the letter allegedly had \u201cinaccurate responses\u201d to the Office of Civil Right\u2019s biennial survey regarding sex allegations against school staff, according to the letter. An investigation will examine if the districts have the proper policies and procedures in place for handling such accusations.<\/p>\n

Other schools outside California were also flagged by federal officials, including multiple districts in Georgia and Michigan each:<\/p>\n

Fredonia-Moccasin Unified District, Arizona<\/p>\n

Connecticut Technical Education and Career System, Connecticut<\/p>\n

DeKalb County, Georgia<\/p>\n

Richmond County, Georgia<\/p>\n

Savannah-Chatham County, Georgia<\/p>\n

Perry County, Kentucky<\/p>\n

Detroit Public Schools Community District, Michigan<\/p>\n

Taylor School District, Michigan<\/p>\n

Pontiac City School District, Michigan<\/p>\n

Springfield R-XII, Missouri<\/p>\n

Manchester School District, New Hampshire<\/p>\n

Gloucester Township Public Schools, New Jersey<\/p>\n

Cheltenham School District, Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

Marion 10, South Carolina<\/p>\n

Marion County, Tennessee<\/p>\n

North East ISD, Texas<\/p>\n

Campbell County Public Schools, Virginia<\/p>\n

Battle Ground School District, Washington<\/p>\n

Among the cases cited by federal officials was a teacher who was allowed to transfer to another high school after a student complained he touched her thigh, stomach and shoulder. <\/p>\n

Additional female students at the new school later accused the same teacher of staring at their breasts and touching their backs and buttocks \u2014 but he again received counseling and sexual harassment workshops rather than being removed from the classroom.<\/p>\n

The federal action comes just months after a\u00a0ProPublica and KQED<\/a>\u00a0investigation found at least 67 California educators kept their teaching credentials even after school districts determined they had sexually harassed students or committed other forms of sexual misconduct. At least 12 of those educators remained employed.<\/p>\n

The Education Department is expected to increase oversight of states\u2019 compliance with federal law \u2014 Title IX and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act \u2014 and scrutinize school districts whose Civil Rights Data Collection reports appear inconsistent with evidence of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Southern California school district and another one in the Central Valley were sent letters by the Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,19442,4182,22334,29463,3183,3586],"class_list":["post-393857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-department-of-education","tag-metro","tag-public-schools","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-students","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}