California reaches proposed settlement with school district that mishandled student sex abuse claims, state AG says

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced at a news conference Friday in downtown Los Angeles a proposed judgment with the El Monte Union High School District to implement “wide-ranging reforms” to prevent and address sexual harassment and abuse on the district’s campuses.

The agreement follows the attorney general’s decision to open a Department of Justice investigation into the district in 2024 after a 2023 Business Insider article titled “The Predators’ Playground” reported 40 years of alleged sexual misconduct involving at least 20 educators at Rosemead High School. The investigation reported alleged grooming so rampant that, in some cases, more than one educator targeted the same girl.

“It was my mentor that I turned to, and my mentor became my rapist,” one woman said at a 2024 news conference announcing the filing of a lawsuit against the district, alleging a culture that allowed and protected sexual abusers. “Our voices should have mattered,” she said.

In the wake of the Business Insider report, more than a dozen female accusers have taken legal action claiming the district systematically covered up years of sexual abuse perpetrated by employees in the ’90s and 2000s and failed to report their claims to police.

The state’s investigation focused on 2018 to the fall of 2025 and revealed that the district continued to regularly violate laws intended to protect against and address allegations of sexual harassment. The investigation includes the review of 113 complaints, around 200,000 emails and 26 interviews with administrators, staff, former students and witnesses.

“Across multiple years, the District consistently mishandled students’ complaints of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse by District employees and others,” Bonta said in a statement Friday. “In doing so, it jeopardized the safety and well-being of its students and violated the community’s trust.”

The state determined that the district violated the California education code and the Child Abuse and Neglect and Reporting Act. The stipulated judgment announced Friday permanently enjoins the district from violating these and other anti-sexual-assault laws and requires a minimum of four years of oversight by the court and the attorney general.

“Today’s settlement marks a beginning, not an end,” said Bonta. “I am hopeful that the District will move swiftly to implement the reforms required by this settlement, and my office will be monitoring closely to ensure its compliance.”

Per the agreement — which requires a judge’s approval — the district must put a new, state-approved official in charge of handling all sexual misconduct complaints, create a single system to track every report, update its rules, and share its responses with state officials. It also must offer counseling and academic help to victims, train students, parents and staff on how to report abuse, and set up a committee to review safety issues and recommend changes.

“At El Monte Union High School District, student safety and well-being remain our highest priorities,” said El Monte Union High School Supt. Edward Zuniga in a media statement. “Through enhanced protocols, increased transparency, and expanded training for staff, students, and families, we are reinforcing our responsibility to protect every student and ensure they feel supported, valued, and ready to learn.”

The alleged culture of grooming students and covering up sexual abuse is not isolated to the El Monte Union High School District. In 2024, Bonta announced a similar wide-ranging settlement with Redlands Unified School District to address systemic failures in its response to allegations of sexual abuse of students.

Redlands Unified has one of the most extensively documented histories of alleged employee sexual misconduct in the United States. The CBS Reports “Pledge of Silence” documentary documented that 50 students accused more than 25 teachers of sexual misconduct between 1999 and 2022, with 11 teachers investigated by police and at least nine arrested.