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SAN JOSE — The fallout from a sex-abuse scandal at Presentation High School widened Friday as a former student filed the first lawsuit against the renowned private Catholic girls school, accusing administrators of chronically ignoring students’ sexual harassment and molestation complaints against faculty and staff.
The lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court on the victim’s behalf by San Diego-based attorney Ken Turek, names as defendants the school, current principal Mary Miller and Jefferey Hicks, who once served as the school’s theater director.
The lawsuit claims Hicks molested a 15-year-old sophomore on campus in 2003 and then again in 2004 during a theater trip to New York City while grooming her for a sexual relationship. Parents have accused Presentation administrators of ignoring their complaints about Hicks, who years later while working at a private school in San Mateo, was convicted of keeping child pornography at work and exchanging inappropriate messages with a 14-year-old student.
“When the student herself tried to put an end to the molestation, Hicks told her he would kill himself or have her arrested, and these types of threats and grooming behavior continued,” Turek said during a Friday news conference in San Jose as he spoke of the student who filed the lawsuit. “Miller’s actions in not following the mandatory reporting laws allowed Hicks to have a clean teaching record when he left employment at Presentation.”
Since last fall, Presentation has been battling allegations of mishandling student complaints of sexual harassment and inappropriate advances by teachers, coaches and other staff. After former student Kathryn Leehane wrote in the Washington Post about her own experience at the San Jose Catholic school in the 1990s, a number of other former students came forward with their own accounts, which they have detailed on a website.
Turek said his client — this news organization does not identify victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly — has since become a successful therapist in New York.
“She is very accomplished outside, but you don’t see the inside struggles and challenges that she goes through every day because of what happened to her at Presentation,” he said. “We have filed this suit in large part to get justice for her.”
Sam Singer, a public relations consultant hired by Presentation, issued a statement in response to the lawsuit.
“The school has not been served nor seen the lawsuit, so we cannot comment on the specifics of the allegations. Presentation welcomes the opportunity to tell the school’s side of the story in a courtroom, rather than having to respond to misleading, and in a number of cases false, allegations posted on social media,” the statement reads.
The statement continues: “Presentation High School is no place for abuse. As educators and fierce advocates of women’s rights, Presentation takes any allegation of abuse extremely seriously. Presentation condemns any instance of sexual abuse or misconduct. Presentation is proud of its efforts to educate and protect the students who attend our high school from sexual misconduct.”
The school has said that it responded appropriately to reports of sexual harassment or abuse, and that some of the accusations from the former students are different now than what was reported to the school at the time.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, was filed on the same day of an annual alumnae reunion at the Willow Glen-area campus, and before a fundraising gala set for Saturday.
Leehane, who has become the most prominent critic of Presentation amid this scandal, lauded the plaintiff’s courage.
“She’s extremely brave given what she’s gone through,” Leehane said. “I really hope it’s the beginning of dozens of survivors getting justice finally. Hopefully, the board of directors and Sisters will finally hold enablers of sex abuse and Mary Miller accountable for their crimes and decades of violating reporting laws.”
California law requires school officials to report any suspected abuse of children to either police or a county child protective services agency. The accusers have detailed online at least 11 cases in which they say they reported specific abuse to school officials who did not report it to authorities for investigation as required.
The school and its critics have met with a mediator, and Presentation is now providing new staff training in the law requiring school officials to report child abuse and created a new Office of Prevention of Student Bullying, Harassment, and Abuse to deal with complaints.
The accusations date back more than 30 years, some by women who have publicly identified themselves, others by those who remained anonymous. Leehane and at least three other women identified their alleged abuser as a former teacher who has since died but remained at the school until he retired.
At least three women, one of whom identified herself, complained of unwanted advances by a former math teacher. Other alleged abusers included a coach and a community involvement staffer. A couple of allegations involved reported off-campus abuse by others not affiliated with the school that the women said they told a school official about, but their complaints were never forwarded to police.
“The keeping of (Miller) as an administrator after they’ve been put on notice about these allegations is a continuing ratification of the wrong acts that took place in the past,” Turek said.
Staff writer John Woolfolk contributed to this report.
