Ex-teacher faces suit over assault

Claim against former Española educator says school administrators ignored man’s history

An Española music teacher who pleaded guilty in September to battery after he was accused of punching, kicking and pulling the hair of three students had faced previous accusations of misconduct that school administrators ignored, says a lawsuit filed by the parents of one of the students.

The lawsuit seeks actual and punitive damages from the teacher, John Andrew Valdez, former Tony E. Quintana “Sombrillo” Elementary School Principal Peter Engler and Española Public Schools.

The student who is represented in the lawsuit and his parents are identified by only their initials.

The complaint, filed in state District Court, says the student was 9 years old in 2015 when Valdez allegedly screamed at him and punched him three times with a closed fist, dislocating his shoulder.

“Defendant Valdez then kicked another male student in the shin and grabbed a third male student’s hair, pulling that student to the ground,” according to the complaint. Valdez shouted at the students “that they were ‘stupid’ and to ‘shut up,’ ” the lawsuit says.

The students reported the incident

to another teacher, the complaint says, and Valdez told then-Principal Engler that he had “lost it.”

But, the lawsuit says, Engler didn’t call police or contact the parents. When the student who is represented in the lawsuit got home from school, the complaint says, he “had blood on his clothes” and “also began throwing up.”

That evening, the boy was “acting strangely and was unable to walk,” so his parents took him to the hospital. The complaint says medical staff reported the incident to police.

A few days later, the complaint says, Valdez told a human resources director for the school district that he had slapped the boy but didn’t remember where on his body.

Valdez, 58, was fired shortly afterward and agreed to a two-year suspension of his teaching license, according to the complaint. Neither he nor Engler could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit.

In September, Valdez pleaded guilty to three counts of battery and was sentenced by District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to 18 months in jail, all of which was suspended in favor of probation. Valdez had agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors that called for no jail time.

Valdez has been teaching in various New Mexico schools since at least 1996, when he was a music teacher at Pojoaque High School, according to the lawsuit.

State police investigated Valdez in 2008 after a woman told police he had pulled her shirt up and her bra down and ran his hand up her thigh after she refused to have sex with him, the complaint says. Valdez claimed the contact was consensual, the complaint says, and no charges were filed.

In 2011, while Valdez was working as a music teacher for Española schools, the complaint says, state police investigated allegations that he had molested his 4-year-old granddaughter, but no charges were filed.

In 2012, the complaint says, Valdez was arrested and charged with battery after he grabbed his groin area and touched the breast of a cashier at a convenience store, then called the store to harass the woman.

At the time of the incident, the lawsuit says, Valdez was working as a band teacher at Cariños Charter School in Española.

Valdez agreed to a plea deal in that case, according to court records. The deal allowed him to obtain a conditional discharge after completing probation, meaning he no longer has a conviction on his record.

District Attorney Marco Serna said Monday he agreed to the plea deal with Valdez in the battery case involving the three students because there were some inconsistencies in the boys’ statements.

“We thought it best to plead him to the three batteries, which would ensure he wouldn’t be able to teach anymore,” Serna said.

Serna said he knew Valdez had faced other allegations in the past but wasn’t aware that Valdez had taken a plea deal in the 2012 case concerning the cashier.

The prosecutor said he had been told the battery convictions would prevent Valdez from renewing his teaching license.

Carolyn Nichols, the Albuquerque attorney handling the case on behalf of the boy, is the same lawyer who has secured settlements totaling about $7 million for clients who claimed they were molested by Gary Gregor, a former Española elementary school teacher facing criminal charges for those alleged assaults.

Española Public Schools Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez said that like many New Mexico school districts, Española Public Schools does not have a written policy that directs administrators about what specific actions to take when students report abuse by a teacher. The Española district does, however, follow state law regarding mandatory reporting of child abuse, Gutierrez said.

The superintendent said she wasn’t sure whether Engler had reported Valdez to police because the incident occurred two years ago and she was gone from the district at the time. But, she said, his directive would have been to contact law enforcement.