PALO ALTO — Three former college students of Castilleja Faculty have sued their alma mater on the grounds that directors did not vet and defend them in opposition to a math tutor who’s at the moment dealing with dozens of expenses accusing him of sexually abusing ladies.
The plaintiffs allege that the distinguished all-girls college had been alerted prior to now to abusive and suspicious habits by Mark Allan Hodes, a longtime math tutor who labored from his Palo Alto dwelling previous to his August 2020 arrest.
Hodes, 79, faces 55 youngster molestation-related expenses in Santa Clara County, and authorities state that 17 former college students have implicated him in sexually abusive habits. The fees had been despatched towards trial after a preliminary examination in 2022, and the case stays in pretrial proceedings, courtroom data present. He’s at the moment out of jail custody.
Within the lawsuit, filed final week by the Bay Space regulation corporations Cerri, Boskovich & Allard and Mary Alexander & Associates, three former college students recognized as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 described being molested throughout tutoring classes spanning 2007 and 2016. They contend that although Hodes was not an worker of the college, educators referred college students to his companies and gave him open entry to the Palo Alto campus.
“The abuse of these students was entirely preventable had the school placed the safety of its students above (its) reputation,” attorneys Lauren Cerri and Mary Alexander stated in an announcement. “The case also raises questions about the responsibility of schools in vetting and monitoring non-employees who have access to students, as well as the potential long-term consequences of failing to address early warning signs of predatory behavior.”
The assertion didn’t tackle what, if any, protocols are in place for non-school workers with vital interplay with college students, a complexity highlighted by the plaintiffs. The lawsuit clashes with the college’s assertion, accusing directors and educators of breaching their duties to college students by “failing to so detect and deter Hodes’ grooming behaviors and sexual abuse” and “failing to properly supervise Hodes on school grounds especially in light of prior complaints of Hodes’ inappropriate interactions with students.”
Doe 1 claims that in the course of the 2012-13 college 12 months, Hodes touched her inappropriately throughout tutoring classes, together with operating his hand on her naked thigh and beneath her skirt. Doe 2, who claimed abuse between 2012 and 2016, and Doe 3, whose claims span 2007 and 2011, described related experiences. The accounts align with testimony given by reported victims at Hodes’ preliminary examination, who recalled him routinely making uncomfortable contact with different components of their our bodies regardless of his job requiring no such bodily proximity.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified financial and different damages in opposition to the college and Hodes, additional contends that Castilleja employees had been notified way back to 1992 that Hodes was suspected of “inappropriate grooming behavior” along with his feminine college students, and that Hodes had a sordid popularity amongst college students who gave him crude nicknames.
The plaintiffs additionally assert that his alleged habits led to him being banned from campus at one other different native highschool, however that “one or more Castilleja employees continued to recommend Hodes as a tutor, allow him to freely access campus, and chose not to take any further actions to deter his abuse of its students.”
