SAN DIEGO UNIFIED PAYS $1.5M TO EX-STUDENTS OVER GROPING ALLEGATIONS

District settles with five who attended La Jolla High School

San Diego Unified School District has paid some $1.5 million to five former La Jolla High School students who said their physics teacher had sexually abused them at school, just-released district records show.

Their 2020 litigation accused

Martin Teachworth, 66, a teacher at the school from 1990 to 2017, of groping them as 16- and 17-year-old students.

It also alleged the school’s principal, Dana Shelburne, and the district were aware of the accusations but let him keep teaching.

According to settlement documents released Tuesday to the San Diego Union-Tribune under the California Public Records Act, the district agreed to pay $1.5 million, and Teachworth agreed to finance $25,000 of the settlement.

The agreement also requires the district to update how it handles sexual abuse allegations and to mandate sexual abuse and misconduct training for all administrators and managerial-level staff.

The district must comply with any audit requests regarding its sexual harassment policies under the agreement, and adopt protocols for gathering and retaining documents for its Title IX office, which investigates sexual abuse and harassment claims.

The settlement stipulates that Teachworth and Shelburne will not work for the district in the future. Teachworth retired from La Jolla High School in 2017.

District spokesperson Maureen Magee first announced the settlement — but not its terms — last month, and said the lawsuit and a task force convened in 2018 had led to changes and improvements in how the district handles allegations of sexual assault.

“The district will continue to review and update these policies annually to remain current and consistent with the latest improvements in best practices and laws,” Magee said in the April statement. “The district respects the courage of the claimants in this matter for speaking out and remains committed to making the safety of its students a top priority.”

San Diego Unified officials declined to comment further Tuesday on the settlement or on the policies and procedures that have been updated.

The lawsuit was originally filed in June 2020 by four women, including Loxie Gant and Maura Kanter. It alleged that Teachworth’s behavior was so prevalent that stu

dents began to refer to him as “Mr. Touchworth.”

In the lawsuit, Gant accused Teachworth of squeezing her buttock twice in 2003 as she was standing between a desk and a bookcase. Gant, who was 17 at the time, said she immediately told other students, a teacher at her next class and the principal minutes after the incident.

Gant first spoke publicly about her allegations to Voice of San Diego. It published an article about the allegations in 2017, but the school district at the time said it had no records of complaints against Teachworth.

On Tuesday, Gant told the Union-Tribune that she’s working with local officials to improve how reports of sexual abuse and assault are handled by institutions throughout California.

“We have to do better,” Gant said. “The first disclosure should be the last disclosure.”

Kanter was a junior when she enrolled in Teachworth’s advanced physics class in 2011.

“Teachworth would often lean into Kanter as he spoke to her rubbing his mustache against her ear,” the lawsuit said. “He would meow into her ear and say, ‘I’m a cat, meow.’”

According to the suit, Kanter reported Teachworth’s conduct to the principal in late December 2011.

Another woman, identified only as Jane Doe, filed a subsequent lawsuit in August 2020. It was consolidated with the first case later that year.

That student enrolled in Teachworth’s advanced physics class during the 2014-2015 school year, according to her suit. During this time, she said, he touched her breast frequently, made sexual comments about her clothes and meowed at her like a cat.

She dropped the class before the end of the year and complained about his behavior to four district employees, the lawsuit said.

Teachworth did not return calls to his cellphone seeking comment.