Ocean View answers to molestation case The...
Ocean View answers to molestation case
The Ocean View School District Board of Trustees released a
statement last week regarding Jason Abhyankar, a former fourth-grade
teacher at Village View Elementary School convicted of child
molestation in 2002.
The statement aimed to address concerns about what the district’s
investigation of Abhyankar consisted of, where the $6.8-million
settlement awarded to the victims earlier this year came from and
what steps the district has taken in response to the incident. A few
parents have been to multiple school board meetings asking for
another investigation into whether the district should be held
criminally accountable in the case, Assistant Supt. Mike Luker said.
“There were already two extensive investigations by the Orange
County Sheriff’s Department and school attorneys,” Luker said. “If
there was anything done, criminally, we would have been charged.”
Abhyankar, 28, received a 24-year prison sentence for molesting
boys at Village View and Portola Hills Elementary School in Trabuco
Canyon, where went to work in 1999. He started at Village View in
1997.
One concern raised in Abhyankar’s trial was that he received a
glowing recommendation from Village View’s principal in exchange for
his leaving the district, Luker said.
“There was a very positive recommendation given, but there was
nothing at the time that indicated that Abhyankar was molesting
children,” Luker said.
The district statement says the money paid to the victims’
families came from the Alliance of Schools for Cooperative Insurance
Programs, a Joint Powers Authority comprised of several Southern
California public schools. The monies paid in settlement are paid by
the insurance carrier, not by the district, the statement says.
Ocean View School District began working with the alliance after
officials became aware of allegations made against Abhyankar by
students at Portola Hills Elementary School, which led to his arrest
in April, 2000.
The district hired Shayla Lever, an expert in the field of
child-abuse prevention, in 2001 to train district employees in
identifying pedophiles, the statement says. Background checks have
also become more rigorous since Abhyankar was arrested in 2000.
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