A trial set to begin August 24 will decide whether Mountain View Whisman School District bears responsibility for a decade-long child sex abuse ring run out of Graham Middle School more than fifty years ago. Two former students allege that Nathaniel McCray, who taught science and sex education at the school, groomed and sexually assaulted them starting when they were 12 years old, and that district staff either knew or should have known what was happening.
The case, first detailed by the Palo Alto Daily Post, traces back to 1974, when McCray was arrested for operating a child sex and photography ring that authorities say involved hundreds of young boys from Palo Alto, Los Altos, Campbell, Cupertino and Santa Clara. According to the Post, McCray was sentenced to prison in April 1975 at age 35, but the civil case against the school district that employed him is only now headed to trial, thanks to a 2020 state law that reopened the door for survivors of decades-old abuse.
The former students say McCray had blackout curtains installed in his classroom, gave students questionnaires asking whether a father lived at home, and designated certain boys as his classroom assistants, per the Post's reporting. Students whose fathers were in the military were potentially more vulnerable to grooming and abuse, according to the lawsuit's allegations. McCray allegedly took male students to ball games, parks, picnics and parties without other adults present, and looked at gay pornographic magazines during lunch, the former students say.
Claims of Ignored Warning Signs
Former students allege that other teachers and the principal knew about McCray's behavior at the time, according to the Post. One detail cited in the case describes a teenage boy who sat in a Ford Mercury in the faculty parking lot all day, an image the plaintiffs point to as evidence that adults on campus had ample opportunity to notice something was wrong. The former students allege the district hired, retained and failed to properly supervise McCray despite these signs.
McCray allegedly sexually assaulted the former students in his classroom during lunch and at his apartment after school, the Post reports. The lawsuit contends the abuse caused anxiety, depression and suicidal feelings that followed the victims for decades, and that they have struggled with trusting and interacting with other people, including their own family members. One of the two former students at the center of the case died in an accident in Los Gatos in February at age 70; his estate is now pursuing the claim on his behalf, according to the Post.
Mountain View Whisman School District has argued that McCray's abuse was not foreseeable and that the boys were not molested on campus, per the Post. A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge rejected the district's bid to have the case dismissed before trial, according to Trellis, ruling that triable issues of material fact remain regarding district oversight. The former students and a co-plaintiff identified as Craig Momita are relying on the California Child Victims Act, which was passed in 2020 and opened a three-year window, from 2020 through 2022, allowing lawsuits over older child sexual abuse regardless of expired deadlines, the Post notes.
McCray's Photography Ring Co-Defendants
McCray had three associates in the ring, including photographer Roger May Murray, who worked for the Santa Clara Unified School District and who admitted destroying at least four times more photographs than the tens of thousands officers found in his apartment and a bank safety deposit box, according to the Post. A 1974 Santa Clara County grand jury indictment separately named four co-defendants tied to the ring — teacher Nathaniel McCray, photographer Roger Ray Murray, Kenneth Steve Carpenter and Ronald Wayne Murphy — charging them with multiple felony counts of lewd conduct, according to the SF Chronicle's reporting on the case's criminal history. That same photographer worked as an official photographer at Pomeroy Elementary School and Curtis Junior High School within the Santa Clara Unified School District, the Chronicle reported.
A Second, Related Settlement
The McCray case is not the only historic abuse claim to hit Mountain View Whisman School District in recent years. In May 2025, the school board agreed to pay $1.6 million to two former Crittenden Middle School students who accused former teacher and vice principal Steven Myers of molesting them from 1970 to 1975, ending that lawsuit before trial, according to Cerri, Boskovich & Allard, LLP, the firm that represented the plaintiffs. The settlement allocated $800,000 to each plaintiff and resolved claims tied to Myers' “Traveling School” summer program, the firm says. The former students alleged Myers lured boys into that program, encouraged them to engage in sexual acts, touched them inappropriately during trips, and gave them drugs, and that the district should have known he was grooming boys.
Myers had previously worked at Crittenden Middle School in Mountain View before he was hired as a principal in Santa Cruz in 1981, and in December 2024, Santa Cruz City Schools reached a $4.5 million settlement with two former students who alleged he abused them there in the late 1980s, according to Lookout Santa Cruz. Myers later had his teaching credentials revoked in both California and Colorado and, using the alias Stephen Jackson, was convicted of felony insurance fraud in Denver in January 2024, per Cerri, Boskovich & Allard. He was never criminally prosecuted for the abuse allegations from the 1970s and 1980s because the criminal statutes of limitations had expired before the Child Victims Act took effect.
Statewide Financial Fallout for Districts
The Mountain View cases are part of a broader wave of litigation reshaping school district finances across California. A legislative fiscal analysis cited by AllLaw estimated that public school districts statewide face up to $3 billion in cumulative civil liabilities from retroactively revived abuse claims, with some major districts issuing judgment-obligation bonds or draining reserves to cover settlements. Hoodline previously reported on LAUSD's $250M borrowing to cover similar liabilities, and school districts have also seen sharp increases in insurance premiums and reduced coverage as risk pools strain under the volume of claims.
Under the law, public agencies found to have intentionally concealed acts of childhood sexual abuse can face treble damages — three times the actual damages awarded — a provision explained by Compass Law Group, LLP. Whether Mountain View Whisman School District knowingly concealed McCray's conduct remains a central and unresolved question heading into the August 24 trial. The district previously placed Graham Middle School teacher Ralph Turner on administrative leave in June 2024 after his arrest on child molestation charges involving a 12-year-old student, a case Hoodline covered at the time, though that matter is separate from the McCray and Myers litigation.
