Lucia Mar is wrong. Reporters’ work to expose toxic wrestling coach was not ‘frivolous’
If not for the persistence of two Tribune reporters — and the willingness of the McClatchy organization to go to court — sexual harassment allegations against a girls wrestling coach at Nipomo High School would never have gotten the attention they deserved.
Justin Magdaleno would have been free to go on to coach at another high school — and perhaps prey on other teenage girls.
How sickening is that?
Educators who truly care about children should be relieved that Magdaleno’s story became public when it did, making it difficult if not impossible for him to ever coach or teach again.
Yet, somehow, after stonewalling The Tribune and repeatedly slow-walking its responses to document requests, Lucia Mar is claiming the high ground. Even more galling, it’s asking a judge to order The Tribune to pay more than $200,000 in attorneys’ fees stemming from a Public Records Act lawsuit filed by the newspaper.
In court documents, lawyers for the school district claim The Tribune’s requests for public records about Magdaleno were “frivolous” and “premature.”
They allege The Tribune “sprinted to the courthouse” to file a public records lawsuit that was “grounded in bad faith.”
Internal investigation
That’s outrageous on so many levels.
If Lucia Mar had fully and promptly complied with the disclosure law in the first place, The Tribune would never have been compelled to file a lawsuit against the district.
Instead, the district sat on the report of its internal investigation of Magdaleno for nine months — even though that report upheld serious accusations, including improper touching, bullying and sexual harassment.
The Tribune filed multiple public records request over a 10-month period, then filed a lawsuit as a last resort.
As a result, a judge ordered the release of additional documents.
The Tribune is now seeking $122,000 in attorneys’ fees — a reasonable request after the school district’s many months of obstruction.
‘Burdensome’ request
Attorneys for the school district are especially critical of The Tribune’s filing for multiple years of Magdaleno’s general personnel records, claiming it was a “burdensome” request that required the district to review “nearly 13,000 emails and attachments.”
“Nothing contained in these documents is newsworthy, which is best demonstrated by (The Tribune’s) failure to publish any news stories regarding these records after their production.”
So what?
Tribune reporters were doing what good journalists do. They were looking into Magdaleno’s entire history not only with Lucia Mar, but also with Pioneer Valley High School in Santa Maria, where he previously worked.
There’s good reason for that: Predators often have a track record. In fact, complaints about Magdaleno were made at Pioneer Valley, but only after he had left the Santa Maria district.
Tribune reporters were being thorough, yet Lucia Mar is self-righteously claiming to act in the best interests of taxpayers by trying to “save” the district $200,000 in legal fees.
If it’s so worried about taking money away from educating children, it should have dealt more expeditiously with the situation in the first place. Instead, it placed Magdaleno on paid leave for nine months, at a cost of $63,000, then gave him $32,000 to walk away. Add in roughly $200,000 in legal costs plus the $122,000 if it’s ordered to pay The Tribune’s legal fees, and the total bill comes to roughly $400,000.
And it’s not over yet; Lucia Mar still faces civil lawsuits filed on behalf of students who accused Magdaleno of abuse.
Make no mistake. The media is not the bad guy here — quite the opposite.
Non-disclosure agreements
It’s Magdaleno who is at fault, along with the district for allowing him to slink away with a nice settlement. Even worse, the district agreed not to disclose Magdaleno’s history to other school districts, should he seek future employment as a coach or teacher.
That’s unconscionable, and Lucia Mar administrators should be ashamed for signing off on a deal that let a known bad actor potentially walk off with his misdeeds shrouded in closed personnel files.
It’s a devil’s bargain, but Lucia Mar is by no means the only school district in the state, or the even the nation, to cover up the misconduct of former employees.
In 2016, USA Today published findings of a yearlong, nationwide investigation into how school administrators are putting children in danger by allowing predatory school employees to transfer from one district to the next. The newspaper found dozens of examples of teachers who had been disciplined in one district and had then gone on to repeat the same behaviors somewhere else.
There have been efforts to pass state legislation that would require disclosure of confirmed cases of sexual misconduct by school employees. Yet so far, lawmakers have lacked the political will to support it.
That’s an outrage. Anyone who would turn a blind eye to sexual misconduct by educators in our schools is complicit in abusing children. That includes any school board member who would approve a settlement with a non-disclosure agreement. It’s that simple.
Demand change
Allowing toxic employees to quietly transfer from one school district to another is very much like what the Catholic Church did in allowing abusive priests to move from one parish to another.
At least the Catholic Church is owning up to the massive wrong if inflicted on children.
The same can’t be said for our public school system.
Where are the calls for reform from educators?
Where are the demands from parents?
Is it any wonder that state lawmakers fail to act amid such complacency?
Elections are coming. Voters should demand that candidates act on this issue.
In the meantime, if districts don’t want to spend money defending themselves from lawsuits triggered by their back-room deals with tainted employees, there’s an obvious solution: Stop covering up their misconduct by allowing them to quietly slip away.
