Abuse victim files suit against district
LOS GATOS >> One of the victims of a former elementary school teacher convicted of serial child molestation is suing the Los Gatos Union School District, alleging a failure to properly investigate abuse claims and protect students over a nearly two-decade span.
The lawsuit revolves around the acts of 51-yearold Joseph Brian Houg, who taught at Blossom Hill Elementary School and was once director of the Los Gatos Youth Theatre and is based on his August no-contest plea to 10 felony charges of child molestation and three misdemeanor charges of child annoyance.
“The school’s lack of oversight permitted Houg to isolate and abuse my client,” attorney Robert Allard said in a statement.
Allard specializes in sexual-abuse lawsuits and has frequently sued school districts, often with the aim of compelling foundational changes in the way they respond to abusive behavior by educators.
Recent attempts to reach the school district for comment did not immediately yield a response.
In the lawsuit filed recently, the plaintiff, identified as John Doe, and his parents say that in January 2020, Houg was alone with John in a dressing room when Houg sexually fondled him while “pretending to tuck in his shirt,” Allard said. The lawsuit asserts that similar “shirt tucking” descriptions were given by
Houg
other students who were abused by Houg.
According to law-enforcement accounts and the lawsuit, claims of abuse by Houg date back as far as 2003, which was about four years after he joined the staff at Blossom Hill Elementary School. The mother of a fifth-grade student at that time complained about bullying by Houg to school administrators and the school board, but that her claim was not even documented, the lawsuit states.
That inattention, according to the lawsuit, paralleled Houg allegedly grooming a third-grade student involved in musical theaters. Criminal charges indicate that about five years later, Houg sexually abused a fifth-grade student behind a locked classroom door.
Other abuse and bullying allegations followed, but Houg did not draw the attention of law enforcement until May 2020, when a 13-year-old boy contacted the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office to report an “uncomfortable”
Zoom call with Houg during which the teacher repeatedly asked him to show his abdomen muscles until he relented. Investigators then received a similar report from another student.
Houg was arrested that September and authorities said a search of his home turned up electronic devices at Houg’s home containing videos of young boys changing their clothes and both videos and images of children in their underwear.
Along with his no-contest plea, Houg resigned from the school district. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 29, and faces a 35-year prison sentence.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from Houg and the district, as well as injunctive relief that would mandate that the district institute measures including, but not limited to, training both educators and students on recognizing and reporting grooming and other predatory behavior and inappropriate contact; bolstering overall theater supervision and barring closed-door one-on-one interactions between adults and students outside of counseling; and implementing robust reporting and accountability protocols for complaints and rule violations.
“My client’s parents believe it’s imperative that current and future students be protected,” Allard said. “Clearly, the school district has a lot of work to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”