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CBS News
24-04-2025
- CBS News
Woodland Joint Unified "negligence" enabled sex assault of student with special needs, lawsuit alleges
WOODLAND -- In a three-part investigative series, CBS13 spent several months investigating allegations that the Woodland Joint Unified School District (WJUSD) is "failing" its students in special education. In part one, a parent and advocate allege that the federal education rights of students with special needs are being violated on a regular basis. In part two, former district teachers speak out about their negative classroom experiences while also pointing to a broken public education system nationwide. In this final story in the series, a Woodland mother is on a mission to hold the district accountable after she says her daughter with special needs was sexually assaulted at school. "There should have been more supervision:" Taking the fight to Yolo County court In February 2026, a Woodland mother will meet WJUSD before a Yolo County Superior Court judge at trial. She filed a civil lawsuit against the district in August 2024. The mother agreed to speak with CBS13 under the condition of anonymity to protect her daughter's identity, who was a minor at the time of the alleged incident. "This was preventable, which is, I think, the biggest tragedy here," the mother said. The lawsuit alleges her daughter was sexually assaulted by another student in a bathroom at Pioneer High School and was left with lifelong trauma. "The crux of this lawsuit is that the district should have and could have protected your child, and they didn't?" I asked. "Yes, that's correct," the mother said. Her child had been in district special education classes since kindergarten. She is diagnosed with multiple intellectual disabilities and struggles to communicate effectively. As the lawsuit alleges, in July 2023, her daughter was enrolled in a summer special education program at Pioneer High School when the unthinkable happened. "I received a phone call that police were on their way," the mother said. The lawsuit alleges she suffered "sexual abuse perpetrated by a fellow classmate as the direct result of inadequate supervision by WJUSD." Her daughter had been followed to the restroom by another student and at that time, the lawsuit and mother allege, the student forced her to have sex with him inside the locked bathroom. "There was sexual intercourse for her in the bathroom, in a school special ed bathroom. She did verbalize that she had said no," the mother said. The Woodland Police Department responded to the incident at Pioneer High that day. Further, the lawsuit claims the district was already "aware of the student perpetrator's dangerous sexual propensities" and claims the student had been filmed kissing the plaintiff on a prior occasion. As the lawsuit reads, despite "specific steps being taken to separate the students during the school year and additional supervision" in the summer Extended School Year program hosted at Pioneer High that "staff failed to take any preventative or safety measures" and even put the two students in the same class. The lawsuit reads, "WJUSD failed to take any initiative to protect the Plaintiff as a Summer Program student. Shockingly, WJUSD did not inform the Plaintiff's Summer Program teacher, or other paraprofessionals, about the prior incident... Plantiff's teacher readily admits that, had she known of the prior incident(s), she would have taken additional measures to ensure the Plaintiff's safety. Instead, WJUSD neglected the safety of one of its most vulnerable students." The mother says school leaders made her aware of the prior kissing incident by phone call but says she was not told that there were further unwanted advances by this student. She also says she was not aware that it was serious enough for school staff to have a plan in place to keep the students separated. She says she didn't find that out until after she filed the lawsuit. "How does that make you feel as a parent?" I asked. "Slighted," the mother responded. "I'm putting my child on a bus to go somewhere, and I believe they will be safe and well cared for and looked after, and that just wasn't the case." After the alleged assault, a police report was filed and her daughter was sent to the hospital. "I told her she's not in trouble. I was there to help her and everything was going to be OK. I never dreamed that me defining sex to her would be after the fact in an emergency room on a gurney. I'm sorry," the mother paused. "Her description was that his privates had gone into hers." The lawsuit further alleges the student perpetrator admitted to police that he had engaged in sexual activity with the same victim on at least two prior occasions at Pioneer High. As the lawsuit lays out, "the sexual assault had a devastating impact on the Plaintiff's emotional well-being. Since the incident, the Plaintiff's Mother has taken every possible measure to address the trauma, including treatment from three specialized trauma therapists, but to little avail." The mother says that her daughter has not been the same since. "A lot changed. She regressed. She regressed back to toddler-like stages in a variety of ways. Getting on the school bus was not something she wanted to do. Emotional outbursts, trouble sleeping. Physically and medically, there have been additional diagnoses. Every day is something of a struggle for her," she said through tears. The lawsuit also alleges she has resorted at times to "urinating where she stands due to her extreme fear of restrooms." She eventually had to be admitted to a 24/7 residential treatment facility due to these behaviors and, additionally, what the lawsuit describes as "horrific self-harm." The student is now enrolled at a new school outside of Woodland on a path to healing with a lot of support. "The impact that this has had to her and will continue to have through the remainder of her life is... I just don't even have words," the mother said. She says she filed the lawsuit for relief on past, present and future damages and to hold the district accountable for "negligently failing" to keep her child safe. "There should have been more supervision for my special needs daughter," the mother said. CBS13 asked WJUSD to respond to the allegations in the lawsuit. As is standard practice, a district spokesperson said they do not comment on existing litigation. Court documents obtained by CBS13 show that attorneys for WJUSD, in their official response to the court, issued a blanket denial of all of the allegations in September 2024. Their response also reads that the district "...denies the Plaintiff was or will be damaged in the sum or sums alleged, or in any sum whatsoever or at all." This civil case is set for trial in early February.
CBS News
22-04-2025
- CBS News
Woodland Joint Unified is "failing" special education students, parent and advocate allege
WOODLAND — In part one of a three-part investigative series, CBS13, for months, has looked into allegations that the Woodland Joint Unified School District (WJUSD) is violating the federal education rights of some of its most vulnerable students: those in special education. Staffing and funding challenges, especially within special education departments, exist at schools nationwide and are not unique to WJUSD. However, a parent, a regional special education advocate and former teachers share stories of their experience at WJUSD schools that they hope will shine a spotlight not only on this district but problems within special education across the country. Sunday night, one day before CBS13 alerted the district that this series would begin to air, the district's superintendent, Elodia Ortega-Lampkin, sent out an email blast to all parents within WJUSD. The email alerted parents that a CBS13 story would be airing and even outlined steps the district is taking to improve their special education department -- a response that included information not provided to CBS13 when we asked multiple times over the course of four months for the district to respond to these allegations. The district's response provided to CBS13 and the subsequent email sent to parents will be included in full at the end of this story. In part, Ortega-Lampkin told parents in her email that, "School districts across California are grappling with similar struggles as they work to meet growing demands with limited resources." At Zamora Elementary School in Woodland, one mother feels that her fight for her child echoes the struggles of other parents within WJUSD. "They talk to us parents like we don't know what's best for our child," Surrina Oliver said. Oliver's daughter, Natalie, is in kindergarten at Zamora Elementary. Oliver said Natalie was diagnosed with autism when she was two years old and was placed in special needs day classes within the district for preschool. But this school year, upon Natalie's transition to kindergarten, is when Oliver says the problems started. "Natalie is behind educationally. The tests show it, and they didn't want to help support her," Oliver said. "They were going to put her into general education with no support at all." At Natalie's first kindergarten IEP meeting, Oliver said she felt silenced. An IEP, or individualized education program, is required by federal law under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) . The IEP document is agreed upon between a student's parent, teacher and school district representatives, outlining what classroom supports are needed for a child in special education. Oliver alleges the district excluded verbally agreed-upon supports from Natalie's IEP document and even lied about her daughter's progress to support a move out of special education. "They weren't taking it serious. It seemed like they were just trying to throw all the kids in mainstream. That's where the majority of her preschool class ended up. They pushed them into mainstream, general ed with very little support," Oliver claimed. Educating one California student in special education can be three times as expensive as general education, based on state spending data. For the 2023-24 school year, state data shows WJUSD had 1,770 students enrolled in special education, the highest of any district in Yolo County. The next closest was Davis Joint Unified with 1,288 students. In Natalie's case, Oliver said her child has also been in the wrong class this entire school year. It is in violation of her original IEP, which stated she should be in a kindergarten class for kids with "mild to moderate" needs. Instead, she was placed in a class for children with "severe" needs, something Oliver further alleges the district did not make her aware of and she instead found out on her own. After a follow-up IEP meeting with the district, Oliver eventually opted to keep Natalie in the wrong class, worried that further disrupting her autistic child's routine would only make her school year even worse. "For her to dislike kindergarten as much as she does is really sad. It's just the beginning. She has so many years to go. It's shaping her education in a negative light," Oliver said. Surrina Oliver is one of dozens of WJUSD parents who reached out to the Sacramento Autistic Spectrum and Special Needs Alliance (SASSNA) for help. "This is why I reached out to [SASSNA], I've been told by the district, 'we don't offer that,' and 'we don't have that,' or 'we can't help you there or support your daughter.' They do have it, but they were trying to make me believe they didn't," Oliver said. Dave Gaines, CEO of SASSNA, first reached out to CBS13 last fall with a long list of allegations against the district. "This is a crisis on the federal level, but most people don't even know it exists," Gaines said. The nonprofit advocates for students with special needs and their families regionwide, providing help navigating social services and even attending students' IEP meetings to act as an advocate on behalf of the child and their parents when negotiating needed supports in the classroom. Gaines said that he learned through his own advocacy work that within WJUSD, Natalie's story is one example of many. "We started getting a stream of requests for help from parents in Woodland Joint Unified. We had never seen anything like it before from this district," Gaines said. Gaines said that he is currently working with around 40 clients, all current or former parents and teachers and all bringing forward their own allegations against the district. "It's probably the most severe situation I've seen in my 15 years of doing this kind of work," Gaines said. So what are the allegations? Broadly, considering confidential information from his clients cannot be shared without their permission, Gaines said that recurring allegations based on his interviews with parents include claims that: Concerning the allegation of students having no teacher at all, Gaines alleges, "I have information, very credible information, that that happened for a period up to seven months. For a class with 12 to 14 significantly disabled students, bigger students, students with behavioral concerns, students that run away, there are safety concerns there." Gaines said that happened at a district adult education class for those with special needs. This school year, SASSNA sent a letter to the district offering to collaborate to address alleged "substantial legal deficiencies" and a "cover-up of systemic problems." He said the district has provided no real response to SASSNA. It is why he contacted CBS13. Gaines also emailed the school board and district that he believes they have, on multiple occasions, "criminally" violated students' federal education rights. It's why he filed a complaint with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) last year. The DOJ, in response, directed its Office of Civil Rights to look into his concerns. Gaines said that he is currently cooperating with federal Department of Education staff and that their inquiry is ongoing. "In a lot of cases, Woodland and other school districts, they know they are in violation of the law. The system doesn't allow them to not be in violation of the law. It says you have to do all this by law, but we are not going to give you enough resources to do it," Gaines said. Gaines said the problem stems from a funding and staffing deficit, decades in the making. He hopes that calling attention to it to can make a difference. "What we don't want is what's been going on for a long time. Complaint after complaint after complaint, single complaints are resolved, but the problem is never resolved," Gaines said. CBS13 sent a Public Records Act request to the California Department of Education (CDE) to try and contextualize this issue. The request for information revealed there were at least six complaints in the 2023-24 school year against WJUSD that were investigated and closed. (Complaints still actively being investigated by CDE are not provided in a records request.) In one of those six cases, CDE ruled the district was breaking the law on the finding that WJUSD did not comply with one student's IEP and that it "did not provide speech and language services during the 2023-24 school year, until January 30, 2024." For at least one still-open complaint, in a letter obtained by CBS13, CDE told WJUSD superintendent Elodia Ortega-Lampkin on December 6, 2024, that CDE would investigate further claims "alleging violations of special education laws." In addition, a CDE spokesperson told CBS13: A full list of every allegation against the district posed by Surrina Oliver, Dave Gaines and two former teachers (who share their accounts in part two of this series) was sent by CBS13 to WJUSD's spokesperson and special education director on December 11, 2024. A spokesperson chose not to respond to the allegations directly, but sent CBS13 this statement: WJUSD's special education director, Michael Allum, then declined to provide information that CBS13 requested concerning administrative hearings, which are proceedings similar to civil lawsuits against the district, under California's Public Records Act. Allum told CBS13, in part: "The District determined that it does not possess disclosable public records responsive to your request." Over the next four months, CBS13 followed up multiple times, requesting information on the status of the internal review that the spokesperson said the district would start to conduct in December. As of April 2025, the district confirmed that the review is still ongoing. The district in April also declined to provide an updated response to CBS13 when told this story would begin airing on April 21. However, on Easter Sunday, the night before this series started to air, WJUSD's superintendent sent an email out to all district parents with further examples of how the district is working to better its special education department that were not provided to CBS13. CBS13 obtained a copy of the email. The subject line is "Important Message from the Superintendent" and it reads, in full: CBS13's three-part series looking into concerns within WJUSD and the nationwide crisis in special education continues Tuesday, April 22, with accounts from two former teachers and a deeper dive into federal education funding. On Wednesday, April 23, we investigate claims presented in a civil lawsuit one parent filed against WJUSD concerning her child, which is set for trial next year in Yolo County court.
