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.