What was done to you at Beaumont High was not okay. Not then, not now.

Beaumont police arrested one of Beaumont High's English teachers in September 2017. The following May she pleaded guilty: three felony counts, one of her own students, a boy of 16. His grandmother told a reporter she'd been going to the school for over a year. His lawsuit says much the same, that she and a teacher reported their concerns to administrators, and nothing was done. One student is in that case. If you were at Beaumont High in those years and something was done to you by an adult who worked there, this is about you.

Free
Confidential
No obligation
You never pay a dollar

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

This applies to you no matter what

You were never the student in the criminal case. Three counts is what a prosecutor could prove about one boy. The police said in October 2017 that they believed there were others. Nobody has counted you yet.
It was a different adult, not her. A second English teacher at the same school was arrested one week after she was, on separate allegations. The questions above ask the role, not the name.
You told somebody at the school and nothing happened. That is the exact thing the student's lawsuit says: a guardian and a teacher reported their concerns to administrators, and the relationship went on. If that was your experience too, say so on the call.
It was smaller than what was in court, it was never charged, and you still think about it. Those are the ones a school answers for as well.
You are 25 now and figure it's old news. For anyone who was a minor at Beaumont High after 2009, California's deadline runs to your 40th birthday at the earliest.
You're a parent, a grandparent, a friend asking for someone who can't. Reach out anyway.

The Beaumont High School record: the arrest, the charges, the plea, the lawsuit, and when

We didn't write what's below. Beaumont police, the Riverside County District Attorney, the student's lawyers, the district's own lawyers and the reporters who covered them did, and we link to every one. We don't add to it. Where the entry says a complaint alleges something, that is all it is until a court says otherwise.

September 20, 2017

Administrative leave, and cooperating with police. That was the district's statement once Beaumont police had arrested Samantha Lee Ciotta, an English teacher at Beaumont High School since she was hired in August 2015, on suspicion of unlawful sex with a minor and oral copulation with a person under 18. Patch, September 21, 2017.

September 27, 2017

Then a second one. Christina Austin, who had also gone by Jacobson, taught English at the same school, and San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies arrested her a week after Ciotta over allegations involving a 16-year-old student; the district, which said it heard of those allegations on September 18 and put her on leave, said she resigned the same day. Separate case. Nothing on this page decides it. Patch, October 3, 2017.

October 17, 2017

Patch reported, from the student's guardian and from police records, that a video of Ciotta with minors had circulated in August, that district officials contacted police about the rumours on September 1, and that a parent went to police on September 6. The next day ABC7 reported that authorities believed there may be other victims. Patch, October 17, 2017.

December 27, 2017

Ciotta pleaded not guilty in a Banning courtroom to what the Riverside County District Attorney had filed on December 19, two counts of unlawful intercourse with a minor and one of oral copulation of a child under 18, all of them felonies, and she stayed on paid leave from the district while she did. Patch, December 27, 2017.

April 2018

Filing as John Doe, the student sued Beaumont Unified School District along with Principal Christina Pierce, whose last day at the school would be April 27 after she resigned, and Assistant Principal Ian Young. The complaint alleges that his guardian, and at least one other teacher, reported their concerns to school administrators while the abuse was still going on, and that nothing was done. Then it lists what it calls the red flags they ignored. Nights at her house. A phone, shoes, speakers. Rumours about alcohol. KFI / City News Service.

May 10, 2018

Three felony counts of unlawful intercourse with a minor: that is what Ciotta pleaded guilty to in Riverside County Superior Court, with the oral copulation count dismissed. The sentence came to four years' probation, 180 days on the sheriff's work-release programme, 90 hours of community service, and a ten-year order keeping her away from the student. She does not have to register as a sex offender; the DA's office said the count that would have required it was dropped by negotiation. Her teaching credential was later revoked. Record Gazette.

July 2, 2018

The district, Pierce and Young filed a cross-complaint against Ciotta asking that she pay any judgment, settlement, investigation expense and legal cost the student's case produces. Plain words: if the district ends up owing him, its position is that she owes the district. Patch, July 5, 2018.

We checked this on September 12, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from July 2, 2018. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a Beaumont High School lawsuit

The district. Beaumont Unified School District runs Beaumont High. It employed her. It's the defendant in the one case that's been filed so far. A teacher who abuses a student answers for herself, and Ciotta has, in criminal court. A district that was told, by a guardian and by one of its own teachers, that something was wrong between a teacher and a boy in her English class, and left him there, answers for that, if the complaint is right. That is the theory of the case already on file, and it is the theory for anyone else. The district is a public body, which changes a few things a lawyer will walk you through: there is no cap on what a jury can award against a California school district in a case like this, and for anything after 2009 there is no government-claim form to file first.

The two administrators named in the suit are defendants too, and the district has already turned around and sued its former teacher for whatever it might have to pay. None of that is settled. None of it needs to be settled before you make a call.

One more thing the record shows: the district itself went to the police on September 1, 2017 about rumours of the video. What it knew before that, and what it did with it, is exactly what a civil case is for.

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

Until you turn 40, or five years from the day you understood what it did to you, whichever is later. That is California's rule for anyone abused as a minor (Code of Civil Procedure 340.1). That's the reason the questions ask your birth year, because if you were born in 1987 or later the door's open on age alone and nobody has to argue about when you understood. The boy in the criminal case was 16 in 2017, which puts his clock, and everybody's who was in that class with him, out around 2041.

One more thing, because Beaumont Unified is a public school district. If it happened after the start of 2009, there's no government claim to file first; Government Code 905(m) took that step away. For conduct after January 1, 2024, there is no deadline at all. Before 2009? Then a lawyer has to look at your facts before anybody promises you a thing, because the window California opened for those older years shut at the end of 2022.

What runs out for someone who was at Beaumont High in 2015, 2016 or 2017 is not the calendar; you've got years of that. It's the texts, the Snapchat, the people who remember who was told what and when.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told a soul. Not a grandparent, not a friend, nobody.
You covered for her, or for him. The boy in the criminal case did too, for months. It is in the police account.
You were drinking at the time, or you were in trouble at school. Neither has any bearing here.
You liked the teacher. Everybody did. That is how it worked.
It never went as far as what was charged, and you figure that means it doesn't count.
You've moved away since, like most of the class of 2018 did.

Schools covered

Beaumont High School at 39139 Cherry Valley Boulevard in Beaumont, plus everything that ran under its name. Classes. Tutoring after school. Teams, clubs, anything off campus where a staff member was along. Another Beaumont Unified campus, or a school in Banning, Cherry Valley or Calimesa? The questions still work. Answer them and say where.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue Beaumont High School?

You sue the district, Beaumont Unified, and one student already has. Whether you can depends mostly on when you were born and when it happened, which is what the questions above sort out. Being at the school in the years the teacher was there is the starting point, not the whole test.

She only got probation. So is that the end of it?

The criminal court settled her punishment, which came to probation, work release and a stay-away order. Civil court decides what a school district owes a student it was warned about and did not protect. Those are different questions, and the second one is still open.

I wasn't the student in the case. Does it still count?

The criminal case is about one boy because that is what the DA could prove. The police said in October 2017 they believed there were others, and the lawsuit says she had contact with additional minors at the school. Whether you have a case turns on your facts, not his, and a lawyer sorts that out on the phone for nothing.

What kind of lawyer do I need?

A civil lawyer who handles institutional sexual abuse against public school districts, not only the individual. That is the only kind we work with, and the firm we work with takes California cases wherever you live now.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

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

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.