A former Theuerkauf Elementary School student has sued the Mountain View-Whisman School District, alleging that her first-grade teacher, Bryan Rios, sexually abused her when she was 6 years old and that district officials had received complaints about his violent behavior toward staff. The lawsuit, filed under the pseudonym Jane Doe, seeks compensatory damages, medical expenses and other damages, along with injunctive relief requiring the district to adopt student-protection policies and procedures.
The complaint, filed August 14 in Santa Clara County Superior Court, names the district and administrator Ryan Santiago as defendants, according to the Los Altos Town Crier. Doe was enrolled in Rios's first-grade class at Theuerkauf during the fall of 2017, and the lawsuit alleges she was sexually abused by him during that time. The complaint accuses the district of negligence and negligent hiring, supervision, training and retention, arguing that Santiago and other district employees failed to adequately investigate complaints about Rios, failed to properly supervise him and failed to report suspected child abuse to authorities.
Warnings From Staff Before the Alleged Abuse
According to the lawsuit, Rios engaged in sexually predatory behavior and harassment and violence toward female staff members. The complaint alleges that Rios assaulted a teacher's aide, and that he beat and choked that aide unconscious. The aide reportedly suspected that Rios was grooming or sexually abusing first-grade students, and the assault was reported to Santiago, per the lawsuit. District employees complained about Rios's conduct, the complaint alleges, but officials failed to act on those prior concerns.
The district has said it took immediate action once concerns about Rios's conduct toward staff were reported in 2017. Rios was placed on administrative leave and prohibited from being on campus starting Nov. 9, 2017, and he did not return to work for the district afterward, the district has said. The Mountain View-Whisman School District has also said that student and staff safety are its highest priorities and that it takes reported employee safety concerns seriously and acts promptly, though it declined to answer additional questions about Rios, citing pending litigation. The district also said it communicated with Theuerkauf parents and staff about the situation at the time.
An Arrest, Conflicting Case Outcomes, and Search for Other Victims
Rios was arrested in November 2023 on charges that included felony lewd or lascivious conduct involving a child under 14 and assault by means likely to cause great bodily injury. Separately, earlier reporting from the Mountain View Voice states that Rios was arrested back on Nov. 29, 2017, on suspicion of forced sodomy and forced oral copulation, and that the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office later dropped those charges due to insufficient evidence. Following Rios's November 2023 arrest, according to the Los Altos Town Crier, police were searching for other possible victims after a student reported to police in October 2023 that Rios had inappropriately touched a student during class.
Doe alleges she reported the abuse to a social worker and police in October 2023. She has since experienced depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and other physical and emotional symptoms, the lawsuit states, and has had difficulty attending school as a result. She was later enrolled in an independent-study program and continues to receive ongoing therapy, according to the complaint.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Litigation Against the District
This is not the first time the district's handling of Rios has drawn legal scrutiny. A former Theuerkauf teacher previously filed a civil lawsuit alleging that district administrators failed to stop a predatory teacher from assaulting and harassing her, according to the Mountain View Voice's reporting on that earlier case. Another former Theuerkauf teacher, Crysti Flowers-Haywood, filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit alleging she was fired in retaliation for reporting sexual harassment and violence by Rios during the 2017-18 school year — including one incident in which she said Rios bumped, grabbed and shoved her in front of students in November 2017. Those complaints alleged that administrators were notified of the harassment and battery but failed to take steps to ensure employee safety on campus, and that the district was aware of Rios's propensity for violence and harassment of other women at the district.
The district has also faced litigation tied to a separate educator: three former Graham Middle School students brought a lawsuit in 2022 alleging they were sexually abused by teacher Nathaniel McCray, who taught at the school in the 1970s. Mountain View-Whisman agreed to pay $5 million this year to settle that separate lawsuit, according to the seed reporting on Doe's case. The new filing against the district over Rios adds to a pattern of allegations that the district's response to reported staff misconduct came too late to prevent harm to students.
