A woman now 36 years old has sued the Redwood City School District, claiming a school janitor sexually assaulted her repeatedly over several years while she was a student at Clifford Elementary School. The lawsuit alleges that custodian Leonardo Hernandez trapped the girl, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, in a school bathroom and abused her for years, with district employees failing to notice or report the misconduct.
Allegations Span Years at Clifford Elementary
According to the Palo Alto Daily Post, Doe attended Clifford Elementary in Redwood City for kindergarten, first grade, and third through sixth grade, spanning the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. The lawsuit, filed in San Mateo County Superior Court on Oct. 12 by attorney Alex Cunny, alleges that Hernandez trapped Doe in a school bathroom and fondled her, both with and without clothing. It further alleges that Hernandez forced Doe to fondle him, kiss him, and digitally penetrate her, and that he forced her to engage in sexual intercourse at least once.
Hernandez was a school custodian at the time of the alleged abuse. The suit states he was permitted to be alone in the girls' bathroom without any supervision, transparency, or oversight, conditions the complaint says enabled the abuse to continue across several school years. Hernandez died in April 2016, according to the same report, and the lawsuit does not name him as a current defendant in any criminal proceeding.
District Accused of Missing the Signs
Doe is suing the district for allegedly failing to monitor and control areas on campus, including school bathrooms where the abuse is said to have occurred. The complaint alleges that school employees either saw the sexual misconduct and failed to report it, or should have paid closer attention to signs that something was wrong. The Redwood City School District operates 12 schools serving about 7,500 students from preschool through eighth grade, per the Daily Post's reporting.
The Post reached out to a Redwood City School District spokesman for comment on the lawsuit and did not receive a response, the paper reported.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Bay Area School Abuse Claims
The case adds to a broader wave of child sexual abuse lawsuits filed against Bay Area school districts under a state law that opened a temporary window for claims that would otherwise have been too old to bring, as the San Francisco Chronicle has reported. The Chronicle identified 52 such lawsuits filed against Bay Area school districts during the last six months of 2022 alone, with allegations dating as far back as 1962 and as recent as 2017. Its review found 49 alleged perpetrators accused of abusing at least 68 students, all but five of them men, and noted that only eight of the 52 lawsuits it tracked had previously been reported publicly.
A similar pattern emerged in San Bruno, where a former teacher was found guilty on 17 counts of child molestation before victims and their families sued the San Bruno Park School District, according to the San Mateo Daily Journal. Those lawsuits accused district administrators of misconduct and sought damages for pain and suffering tied to the abuse, and San Bruno Park School District Superintendent Matt Duffy did not immediately respond to requests for comment when lawyers for the victims spoke at a press conference in March.
