What happened to you at an Anaheim Union school was not okay.

Sycamore Junior High. Kennedy High in La Palma. Savanna. Fremont, which doesn't even exist anymore. Four campuses, four different men, and the same school district on the other side of every one of those lawsuits. Anaheim Union High School District has paid twice, $7.95 million in 2019 and $198,700 in 2025, and in November 2024 twenty-five more former students filed against it in one complaint. So if you went to one of those schools, or to any of the district's other campuses from Cypress to Stanton, and a teacher or a coach did something to you: this is about you. It was written for you.

WatchingSeptember 2026: the complaint filed by 25 former Sycamore Junior High students against the district in Orange County Superior Court on November 20, 2024 is pending, with no ruling or trial date reported; two of the three 2022 complaints over a Savanna High teacher have no public disposition; and that teacher is still listed on Katella High School's staff directory. The questions below work for anyone, any campus.

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6 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.

This applies to you no matter what

Your school isn't one of the five above. Loara, Magnolia, Cypress, Anaheim High, Western, Ball, Dale, Walker, any of them. It's the same district, the same defendant, and the record on this page is the district's record, not one campus's.
You never sued, even when the others did. The five Kennedy players who settled in 2019 settled their own claims and nobody else's. Same for the Savanna student who settled in February 2025. A settlement with them settles nothing for you.
You told somebody, a counselor, a coach, your mom went to the office, and nothing came of it. At Kennedy, at Sycamore and at Savanna that is precisely what the complaints allege happened to reports. It is the heart of the case, not a reason to stay quiet.
It was the nineties, or before. Your birth year matters more than the year it happened, honestly; the deadline section explains why, and why one call is worth it even past forty.
The teacher is dead, or was acquitted, or was never charged at all. Two of the four men on this page are dead, one of them on the last day of his trial. One was acquitted in 2004 and still teaches. The civil case is against the district, and it doesn't wait on a criminal one.
You're a parent, a sibling, a friend asking for someone who can't. Reach out anyway. Also, and this is newer: if it happened on or after January 1, 2024, there's no deadline. None.

The Anaheim Union record: the arrests, the lawsuits, the two settlements, and when

None of what follows is ours. Police and prosecutors wrote it, and four sets of plaintiffs' lawyers, a clerk's stamp in Santa Ana, the reporters who read the court files, and we link to every line. Where a sentence says a complaint alleges something, that is all it is: a claim in a filed lawsuit, not a finding. Three of the four men below were never convicted of anything: one died before the verdict, one was never charged, and one a jury acquitted. The page says so each time. And because this page covers a whole district: the criminal record and the complaints below name Sycamore Junior High, Kennedy High, Savanna High and Fremont Junior High as the places. Katella High is named only because a settled complaint said the district moved a teacher there; no complaint alleges anything happened at Katella. Every other Anaheim Union campus is covered because the same district ran it, not because a separate record on that school is cited here.

September 8, 2015

The day Anaheim police showed up at David Bruce's home and arrested him he was 65 and retired from the drama room at Sycamore Junior High School, where he'd taught from 1981 until 2010, though he was still substituting there as late as 2013, which is why so many people who read this will remember him. Two counts of child molestation and one count of possessing child pornography went on the booking sheet, he was released on $100,000 bail, and what police said publicly was that two former Sycamore students, adults now, had come forward and that they wanted to hear from anyone else. ABC7.

October 2, 2015

The first civil suit. One former Sycamore student, one of six boys by then named in the criminal case, filed in Orange County Superior Court against Bruce and the Anaheim Union High School District. What the complaint alleges: that the two were alone together a lot, off campus and behind closed doors on it, and that the roles and favors the boy got in school productions came in front of district employees. The criminal case, for its part, covered August 1996 through June 2011, and the boys in it were 11 to 14 years old. OC Weekly.

August 30, 2018

Here is the one conviction on this page, and we're going to state it exactly as the court took it. Joshua Owens, who was 24 and coached water polo and swim part-time at Kennedy High School in La Palma, pleaded guilty to two felonies, oral copulation and sexual penetration of a victim under 16, plus six misdemeanor counts of child annoyance, all of it involving three girls between 14 and 16 over the stretch from September 2014 to June 2017, and the sentence he got for it was six months in jail. NBC Los Angeles.

October 10, 2018

On the eleventh day of his trial, the morning closing arguments were due, Bruce didn't come to court. He was found dead at his home in unincorporated Anaheim, a suspected suicide. Ten felony counts were pending against him at that point, eight for lewd acts on a child under 14 and two on a child of 14 or 15, five former students in all, and with him dead the District Attorney dismissed the whole case. So: no conviction, and this page never says there is one. CBS Los Angeles.

February 2019

Kennedy families sued the district. The complaint names Anaheim Union High School District, Kennedy's principal, both athletic directors, a teacher and a former coach alongside Owens, and it alleges that two years before his arrest a parent reported to the coach that they suspected Owens was abusing their daughter, that a year later a former student told the teacher he was abusing pupils, that the teacher passed it up to the athletic directors and the principal, and that none of them reported him to the police as the law required. The families' lawyer, Morgan Stewart, called that abhorrent. His word, not a court's. OC Weekly.

October 2019

Eight months later the district settled with five former Kennedy water polo players: $7.9 million by the Register's and OC Weekly's count, $7.95 million by the players' lawyers'. The paperwork says what settlements say, no admission of guilt or wrongdoing by the district or its employees. Nobody was ever tried on what the complaint alleged. OC Weekly.

September 28, 2020

Eight women filed an amended complaint in Orange County Superior Court over Richard Elgas, the band director at Fremont Junior High and then Sycamore Junior High for almost forty years until he retired in 2003. He died in 2017 and was never charged. The complaint alleges sexual relationships with girls of 12 to 17 going back to 1973 (Fremont in the seventies, Sycamore from 1986 to 1998), three pregnancies, and, in their lawyer's words, evidence that at least one district staff member knew as far back as 1978. The reporter left a message with the district that day and didn't hear back. City News Service via KFI.

October 31, 2022

Krystal Slocum's lawyers e-filed her complaint against the Anaheim Union High School District at 4:33 that afternoon, and it became case 30-2022-01289723-CU-PO-CJC, negligence and negligent supervision and retention. What she says in it, and it is her account, not a finding, is that she was born in 1985 and was a sophomore at Savanna High in 2000-01 when a history teacher there, David Sepe, groomed her and then assaulted her, that year and the next; that a different teacher once pulled her aside and warned her to stay away from him, and left it there; and that when another student reported him later he was arrested and tried, a jury acquitted him, and the district, in or around 2008, moved him to Katella High School. Complaint (conformed copy, Orange County Superior Court).

December 24, 2022

The Los Angeles Times put the three Savanna lawsuits together. Krystyna Gomez, who as a senior had told a school counselor what the teacher did, and was the only one of the three to come forward back then. What followed: two misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a child, brought by the Anaheim city attorney, and a jury's acquittal in 2004. He denied it then, sued her and her mother afterward, and was, the Times reported, teaching at Katella. Slocum, 37. A third woman, unnamed. All three filed in Orange County Superior Court, and the district told the paper it had not received any lawsuits and had no comment. Los Angeles Times (syndicated copy).

November 20, 2024

John Roes 1 through 25. At least twenty-five former Sycamore Junior High students filed one complaint against the district in Orange County Superior Court over Bruce, for negligent supervision and negligent failure to protect, covering 1997 to 2010. The allegation against the district itself, and it's the one that carries the case, is that a school maintenance worker saw Bruce molesting students on two separate occasions and reported it to supervisors both times, and that no formal action was taken either time. Keep in mind these plaintiffs were all boys at Sycamore in the nineties or the 2000s; you'll see why that matters when you get to the deadline. Slater Slater Schulman (PR Newswire).

February 14, 2025

The Slocum case settled, for $198,700; the notice of settlement of the entire case was filed on March 20, 2025. The district had denied everything and pleaded, among other things, that the claims were late and that no government claim had been filed. The case settled before any of it was decided. One plaintiff, one payment, and no admission. Exlitem verdict and settlement report.

September 15, 2026 update

Katella High School's own staff directory lists Sepe, David, Teacher. Eighteen years after the transfer the settled complaint describes, twenty-two after the acquittal. We checked it the day we wrote this and we'll keep checking. The 25-plaintiff Sycamore case has no ruling or trial date that we can find, and the other two Savanna complaints have no public outcome. Katella High School staff directory (AUHSD).

We checked this on September 15, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from September 15, 2026 update. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in an Anaheim Union High School District lawsuit

The district. Not the teacher, or not only. Owens answered for himself in criminal court, Bruce never got the chance, Elgas and Sepe never were convicted, and none of them is who the families sued for money. They sued the Anaheim Union High School District, the public body that hired these men, put them in a classroom or a pool, and, the complaints allege, was told about them and kept them there. A parent's report to a coach at Kennedy two years before the arrest. A maintenance worker's two reports at Sycamore. A counselor at Fremont in 1978. An arrest, a trial, and then a transfer to Katella. Those are the allegations, campus by campus, and they are the case: a teacher answers for what he did; a district that was told and did nothing answers for everyone he reached after that. No court has found the district knew. It settled twice without admitting it.

Anaheim Union is a public entity, and that changes three things a lawyer will walk you through. There are no punitive damages against a school district in California, ever; that's Government Code 818. There is no cap on what a jury can award for what was actually done to you. And you do not file a government claim first, whatever year it was; childhood sexual abuse claims go straight to court. The district raised the claim point in its answer to the Slocum case. It was never decided, and the law says it doesn't apply.

One more thing about how this page is built, because we want to be exact. Savanna has a page of its own, at /savanna-high-school-survivors, because people search that name. Read it if yours is that school. But the defendant on every one of them is this district, the questions are the same, and the record on Katella is the record you just read: a transfer, not an allegation of abuse there.

Your deadline: the California statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse at a public school

Until you turn 40, or five years from the day you understood what it did to you, whichever is later. That's California's rule for anyone abused as a minor before 2024 (Code of Civil Procedure 340.11), and it is why we ask whether you were born in 1987 or later. If you were, the door is open on age alone, whichever campus, whichever year. Every one of the 25 Sycamore plaintiffs was there between 1997 and 2010. The Kennedy players were there in 2014. A kid born in 2003 has until 2043.

Because the district is a public body there is one more rule, and here it helps you. You do not have to file a government claim with Anaheim Union first; Government Code 905(m) and Code of Civil Procedure 340.11(s) take that step off the table, and it hasn't mattered which year the abuse happened since 2020. Born before 1987, and 40 has come or is close: what's left is the discovery rule plus a showing that the district knew or should have known. (The Savanna plaintiffs, born around 1985, filed in 2022 under a revival window that closed at the end of that year; that door is shut now, and we say so.) Whether the showing can be made on your facts is a lawyer's call, not ours. We won't pretend otherwise.

And if it happened on or after January 1, 2024, there's no deadline at all; that is Code of Civil Procedure 340.1. Plainly, then. If you were at an Anaheim Union school any time from the mid-1990s on, you almost certainly still have time. What doesn't keep is the rest of it: who else was in the room, which parent went to the office, what the maintenance man said and to whom. That's the part worth one call now.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told a soul. Not a parent, not a spouse, nobody. The Sycamore plaintiffs waited thirteen to twenty-seven years.
You liked him. He was the band director who took the kids to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the drama teacher with Hollywood connections, the young coach. That is in the record at three of these schools, and it is part of how it worked.
Police talked to you once, 2004 maybe, or 2015, and you told them nothing happened. The Slocum complaint says exactly that about her, and she settled anyway. A police interview isn't a claim, and a denial back then isn't held against you now.
You figure the families who settled got everyone's share. No. Their share was theirs. The district was back at the table in 2025 over a case from 2000, and the Sycamore case is still open.
He was never convicted. Two of the four never were, and one was acquitted. The civil case is against the district and runs on what it knew, not on a verdict.
You live somewhere else now, Nevada, Arizona, anywhere. Half of the class of whatever-year does, and the firm we work with handles California cases wherever you are.

Schools covered

One of these schools doesn't exist anymore. John C. Fremont Junior High, where the Elgas complaint begins in 1973, closed decades ago and the building is gone; if you went there, you already know that. The other four are still standing, so here are the streets, in case there's any doubt which school we mean. Sycamore Junior High School is at 1801 East Sycamore Street in Anaheim, and it carries the most weight on this page, the Bruce criminal case plus the complaints of 2015, 2020 and 2024; Kennedy, which trips people up because it isn't in Anaheim at all but in La Palma, is John F. Kennedy High School at 8281 Walker Street, and the Owens plea and the 2019 settlement are its. Savanna High School, at 301 North Gilbert Street, is in the three 2022 complaints and has a page of its own, /savanna-high-school-survivors. And Katella High School at 2200 East Wagner Avenue, listed because the Slocum complaint says the district moved the teacher there in 2008 and the district's directory says he is still there; no complaint alleges abuse at Katella, and we say exactly that. Those are the campuses the records name. Anaheim High, Loara, Magnolia, Cypress, Oxford Academy, Western (Orangeview Western since 2025), and Ball, Brookhurst, Dale, Lexington, South and Walker junior highs are covered because the same district runs them, not because any record on this page names them. A different district, Anaheim Elementary, Garden Grove, Fullerton? The questions still work. Answer them and say where.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue the Anaheim Union High School District for abuse by a teacher or coach?

Former students have, over four different men at four campuses, and the district has settled twice rather than go to a jury. Whether you can depends mostly on when you were born and when it happened, which is what the questions above sort out. Which school matters less than you'd think: the defendant is the same.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Here, nothing. Every case is on contingency, so the lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing, not for the first call and not for the case review either.

What did the district pay in the Kennedy High School water polo case?

$7.95 million to five former players, in October 2019, by their lawyers' count; the papers rounded it to $7.9 million. The district admitted nothing. That is one case with its own facts, and it is not a promise about anyone else's; no two are alike.

Do I have to file a claim with the school district before I can sue?

No. California took that step out for childhood sexual abuse claims against public entities, and since 2020 it hasn't mattered which year the abuse happened. Your case goes to court, not to a claims office.

The teacher died, or was found not guilty. Is there still a case?

There can be. Look at the two most recent ones. Sycamore, filed 2024: that teacher had died in 2018, mid-trial, no verdict. Savanna, settled 2025: a jury had acquitted that teacher back in 2004. Those cases run against the district, on what it knew and what it did. A lawyer looks at your facts, not the criminal file.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed California attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.