Lawsuit: School knew of illicit relationship
Ex-Prospect High student sues district for not intervening even after coach became pregnant
SARATOGA >> A former Prospect High School student claims that school employees failed to investigate or report his illicit encounters with an adult basketball coach when he was a minor, even after the coach became pregnant with his child, according to a new civil lawsuit against the district.
Filed last week in Santa Clara County Superior Court, the suit alleges a torrid series of events in the Campbell Union High School District during the 2012-2013 school year, including the allegation that at least one other Prospect High employee helped to facilitate the illegal relationship.
The plaintiff — referred to as “John Doe” in the suit — transferred to the school midway through his sophomore year in 2011. Early on in the fall of 2012, the student, who had recently turned 16, began receiving messages from part-time assistant female basketball coach Mariah Rogers, who was then in her early 20s, the suit alleges.
As the messages continued, the student and Rogers began meeting on campus for sexual encounters several times a week — in some cases, with the help of a school library worker, who allegedly helped to arrange clandestine meeting spots, according to the suit.
The suit claims that the encounters were so well-known across the school that the school’s then-dean of students allegedly confronted the plaintiff directly to ask him about “rumors” surrounding the relationship but made no effort to report or investigate the situation. The head women’s basketball coach also knew about the affair but felt it wasn’t her “business” to interfere, she allegedly told another student years later, according to the lawsuit.
Ryan Erickson, the plaintiff’s lawyer and a partner at San Francisco firm Lewis & Llewellyn, declined to share when exactly those conversations occurred.
By not investigating the rumors or reporting them, the suit alleges, the school employees and the district as a whole failed to take reasonable or sufficient actions to protect the student.
The coach has not been criminally charged in relation to the allegations in
the past; Erickson declined to comment beyond saying that “it will be up to the authorities whether or not to pursue criminal charges” in connection with the complaint.
“A spokesperson for the school district said in a statement Monday that they had informed law enforcement of the allegations and would cooperate with any investigation.
“Campbell Union High School District takes these allegations very seriously,” the spokesperson said. “These disturbing allegations, if found to be true, are at odds with our District’s mission to make our schools a place where students
are safe, supported and valued. Since this now involves pending litigation, we will not be able to comment further at this time.”
The statement added that “school administrators who were employed during the time of the alleged incidents are no longer in administrative roles in CUHSD.”
The previous 10-year criminal statute of limitations for rape and sexual assaults was lifted in California in 2016.
Several months after their sexual encounters began, Rogers told the plaintiff that she was pregnant with his child.
As her pregnancy became physically obvious, she eventually left the school; the circumstances, and the exact date of her departure are not outlined in the suit.
Rogers gave birth to a daughter in July 2013, and subsequent DNA testing has shown that the plaintiff is the child’s father, according to Erickson.
Rogers did not respond to a request for comment.
Even after the child was born, Rogers pressed the plaintiff to keep the encounters a secret, the suit alleges. The plaintiff eventually told his family when his daughter was 1 year old. The plaintiff’s family decided
not to press charges at the time because of the shared child.
“In many ways that was the hardest thing,” Erickson said. “It’s really an untenable situation he was put in, and tried to maintain it as long as he could, but certainly that took a huge emotional toll on him.”
Rogers subsequently moved out of state in 2016 and married. She now lives in Texas with their daughter, according to the suit. At one point, the plaintiff moved out of the state to be closer to his child, but he now lives and works in Santa Clara County, Erickson said.
The plaintiff was inspired to come forward after a former Prospect High girls soccer coach, Jansen Estrada, was charged with three felonies last year after allegedly pursuing a relationship with a 14-yearold girl.
Erickson declined to share an estimate of the amount of money that his plaintiff could ultimately seek from the suit.
“His fear is that things haven’t changed and these types of inappropriate relationships are allowed to begin and progress and are not being properly investigated,” Erickson said of the plaintiff. “It’s not about retribution.”