Went to Barstow, Jordan, Markham, Berendo, Crenshaw, Los Alisos or McKenney? What happened to you there was not okay.

Seven schools, and the record on every one of them is public. Jordan High in North Long Beach, where the teacher who ran the athletic department is doing 80 years to life and seven of his former students are suing the district. Los Alisos Middle in Norwalk, where a sixth-grade teacher got 30 to life and the lawsuits say the district let him back on campus after a girl reported him. Barstow High, where a coach pled guilty and the district later paid $2.4 million in a case where a judge sanctioned it for not telling the truth in discovery. Berendo Middle, where a science teacher went to state prison over a former student, and a new lawsuit says a Berendo student came before her. And three more 2026 lawsuits, at Markham Middle in Watts, Crenshaw High, and Anna McKenney Intermediate up in Marysville. Different campuses, different years, different men. What's the same: if a teacher or a coach at any of the seven did something to you when you were a kid, this is about you, whichever one it was.

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

This applies to you no matter what

You told somebody at the school and nothing happened. At Los Alisos, the lawsuits say a girl reported the teacher, he was removed, and the district let him back the next year. At Barstow, the lawyers for one student said district staff had reports for two years and did nothing. At Jordan, the complaint says the district saw the signs and left him in the classroom. It isn't a reason to stay quiet. It's the heart of the case.
It was a coach, not a teacher. Barstow's was a coach who became an associate principal. Jordan's teacher was the athletic director. Nobody has treated the gym any differently from the classroom.
It was a long time ago. The Berendo teacher's conviction goes back to 2007 and 2008. Crenshaw's 2026 lawsuit is about 2010 to 2012. Your birth year counts for more than the year it happened; the deadline section further down says why.
You were never one of the ones who sued, or who testified. Seven women sued over Jordan; the criminal trial heard three. The Barstow and Los Alisos cases each started with one student. Nobody on this page has counted everyone.
You're a man and you figure a page like this isn't for you. The Markham lawsuit was brought by a man, over his sixth- and seventh-grade years.
You live out of state now. Every one of these cases sits in a California court and you don't need to.
You're a parent, a classmate, a friend asking for someone who can't. Reach out anyway. The McKenney case was filed for a child by a guardian.

The seven schools' convictions, settlements and lawsuits: what the public record says, and when

None of what follows is ours. The convictions were entered by juries and judges, the complaints were filed by former students and their lawyers, and reporters wrote the rest up. Every line links to where it came from. Where a complaint is the source it's an allegation and we say so. Where the only public word on a 2026 lawsuit is the filing lawyers' own advertising, we say that too, and we don't attach a case number to a school until a complaint page confirms it. And because this page covers seven schools, every entry below is a record of one of the seven or of the district behind it, nothing borrowed from one and pinned on another.

December 2008 to January 2015

Berendo. The record on the Berendo teacher starts with a car: on December 2, 2008 an assistant principal at a Los Angeles middle school reported an incident involving an eighth-grade science teacher, George Jauregui, and a former student, and three years later, in December 2011, he was arrested. The girl had been in his eighth-grade class and was sixteen when it started, in December 2007; a jury convicted him of three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and one of possessing child pornography, he got four years in state prison and lifetime registration, and the Court of Appeal upheld all of it on January 14, 2015. The opinion never names the school. The 2026 lawsuit does. People v. Jauregui, B249918 (Cal. Ct. App. 2015).

February 22, 2012

Crenshaw. A special-education teacher at Crenshaw High resigned while LAPD was investigating a report of inappropriate contact with a child. The district confirmed the resignation and the open investigation and said nothing else. No charge was ever reported. That is where the public record stopped for fourteen years. CBS Los Angeles.

January 2015 to 2016

Barstow. Mark Hassell had been a coach and then an associate principal at Barstow High and was the principal of the district's STEM academy when he was arrested in January 2015. Arraigned on eight felonies that March, he pleaded guilty in 2016 to one count of child molestation and got a year in jail and five years' probation. The student's lawyers said district staff had received reports about him over two years and taken no action; Barstow Unified settled with her for $2.38 million. Victorville Daily Press.

2013 to April 2018

Jordan. Mark Santo was still at Lindbergh Middle School in 2013 when the principal put a written reprimand in his file over how he was dealing with female students on Instagram. He kept his job, moved to Jordan High, taught there for nearly four years and ran the athletic department. In February 2018 the principal called him in after another teacher overheard three girls talking about him; he admitted a sexual act with a former student who had been 18 and was removed from the classroom. That April the district moved to fire him and he resigned instead, under an agreement in which Long Beach Unified promised to tell a future employer nothing about the allegations. Long Beach Post, from LBUSD records.

May 2020

Jordan. Police arrested Santo on May 18, 2020, over one count, a lewd act on a 13-year-old at his home in 2015. By July the case was six felonies involving three former students from Jordan or Lindbergh, two of them minors at the time. The 2018 report, it turned out, had been pursued by police and dropped when they lost contact with the young woman. The Long Beach Post got the records. Long Beach Post.

March 2019 to October 20, 2021

Barstow, again. Katherine O'Neill had taught social studies at Barstow High for seventeen years when she was arrested in March 2019 over a student. She died in January 2021 before any trial. The student's civil case went on against the district, and in October 2021 Barstow Unified paid $2.4 million to settle it. On the way there a judge sanctioned the district $4,000 for untruthful answers in discovery, and the student's lawyers described a culture of intimidation, silence and cover-ups in which staff who tried to report were ignored, threatened or told to take it back. Victorville Daily Press.

May 18, 2022

Los Alisos. Sheriff's deputies arrested Scott Waln, a sixth-grade teacher at Los Alisos Middle School in Norwalk, on two felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14, bail set at $1.2 million. Investigators said out loud that they believed there were more victims than the ones they knew about. CBS Los Angeles.

June 2022

Los Alisos, six weeks later. The family of an 11-year-old sued Norwalk-La Mirada Unified and Waln. The complaint says the district had already referred him to the District Attorney once over sexually inappropriate conduct with students, still let him be alone with children at recess, and that girls complained and staff ignored them. An allegation against the district, as every civil complaint is. FOX 11 / City News Service.

June 5, 2023

Jordan. It took a Long Beach jury less than a day, after a week of trial, to convict Mark Anthony Santo of two counts of lewd acts on a child under 14, forcible sexual penetration, forcible oral copulation and two counts of assault with intent to commit those acts, with a finding of multiple victims, and the bailiff took him into custody where he stood. Long Beach Post.

October 17, 2023

Jordan. Eighty years to life in state prison, from Judge Laura Laesecke, who told him from the bench what she thought he was: "You are a predator, Mr. Santo." Long Beach Post.

December 27, 2023

Jordan. Jane Does 1 through 7, seven of his former students, sued Long Beach Unified, Santo and his wife in Los Angeles Superior Court that December (No. 23STCV31632) for sexual abuse, battery, negligence and public-entity liability, and their complaint's charge against the district is that it "ignored and concealed" what he was doing; the case is pending and the district has admitted nothing. Docket.

September 2024

Los Alisos. A jury convicted Waln and he was sentenced to 30 years to life. Within days two more former students sued the district. Their lawyers' account: the first girl reported him to the school, police investigated and he was removed, and the district let him back on campus the following year, where more children were victimized. Three former students are now suing. The district has not admitted liability. CBS Los Angeles.

September 25, 2024

Los Alisos, the second complaint. Negligence against Norwalk-La Mirada Unified for 2019 to 2021, punitive damages sought against Waln personally; the complaint says the district knew the danger he posed and allowed him to keep teaching. Los Cerritos Community News.

February 18, 2026

McKenney. The Yuba County case, Doe v. Marysville Joint Unified School District, No. CVPO26-00302, was filed on February 18, 2026 for a child by a guardian ad litem, amended in May, answered by the district in June and set for trial on January 4, 2028; the court's register carries no complaint text, and what is public about the teacher comes from the law firm that filed it, whose own advertising says a teacher at Anna McKenney Intermediate abused a 12- or 13-year-old and touched other students in the same classroom. An allegation, in a case the district is defending. Yuba County Superior Court register.

July 31, 2026

Berendo. John G.J. Doe v. Los Angeles Unified School District et al., Los Angeles Superior Court No. 26STCV24112, filed at the Stanley Mosk courthouse. The named individual defendant is George Jauregui, the teacher convicted above. The firm that filed it says the complaint concerns a Berendo Middle School student who was 12, before the girl in the criminal case. The district has not answered publicly. LASC docket; the firm's public ad.

Summer 2026

Markham. The same firm says it filed a Los Angeles County lawsuit over Edwin Markham Middle School in Watts: a student abused by a teacher during his sixth- and seventh-grade years, and warning signs and reports of inappropriate conduct that were not properly addressed. Two Lanier complaints against L.A. Unified were filed at the Compton courthouse on July 31 and August 7; which one is Markham's is not public yet, so no case number goes here until a complaint page says so. The firm's public ad (Meta Ad Library).

September 2026

Crenshaw. Fourteen years after the resignation, the same firm began advertising a lawsuit over Crenshaw High: a former student, it says, was abused by a teacher there between 2010 and 2012. A complaint by a female former student against L.A. Unified and a named teacher was filed at Stanley Mosk on September 8; as with Markham, the number waits for the complaint page. The firm's public ad (Meta Ad Library).

October 2026

Barstow, a third time. The firm's ads say a 2026 lawsuit in San Bernardino County claims a former Barstow High coach abused a sophomore and that another coach walked in and did nothing. Not yet in any index we can read; it is the firm's word for now. The firm's public ad (Meta Ad Library).

We checked this on October 19, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from October 2026. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a California school sexual abuse lawsuit

The school, and the district behind it. That is who the people ahead of you sued, at every one of the seven. Long Beach Unified is the defendant for Jordan; Norwalk-La Mirada Unified for Los Alisos; Barstow Unified paid both Barstow settlements; L.A. Unified is the defendant for Berendo, Markham and Crenshaw; Marysville Joint Unified is defending the McKenney case. The theory doesn't change from one courthouse to the next, and it isn't complicated. A teacher or a coach who abuses a student answers for himself, and two of these men are answering, 80 years and 30 years of it. A school that hired him, put him alone with kids, was told, and kept him on? That school answers for what it let happen. The complaints say so, in the law's own words: negligent hiring, negligent supervision, retention, a failure to act on what it was told.

Because every one of the seven is a public school, three things change, and a lawyer walks you through them. No punitive damages against a school or a district; California law bars them. No cap on what a jury can award. And for a childhood claim there is no government-claim form to file first, no six-month window to have missed, whatever year it was. One more, for anyone filing at 40 or older: the law asks for a showing that the district knew or should have known. A hurdle, not a wall.

Now the money, because people ask. Barstow Unified paid $2.38 million in the coach's case and $2.4 million in the teacher's. The Jordan, Los Alisos, Berendo, Markham, Crenshaw and McKenney cases are pending and nothing has been paid or awarded in them. None of that is a promise about your case. It is what the record says a California district pays when a case like this is proven or settled, and it is why lawyers take them on contingency.

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 is California's rule for anyone abused as a minor (Code of Civil Procedure 340.11). It is why we ask your birth year: born in 1987 or later and the door is open on age alone. Born earlier and it turns on discovery, which is a conversation with a lawyer, not a date you look up.

Anything from January 1, 2024 on has no deadline. None. And since the school or the district is a public body there's one more thing, and it cuts your way: no government claim to file first, Government Code 905(m), whatever the year. Born before 1987, the fortieth birthday has come or is close, and what remains is the discovery rule plus a showing that the district knew, so a lawyer needs to look at your facts before anyone promises you anything.

Plainly: if you were at one of these schools in the 2000s or later, you almost certainly still have time. If it was the 1990s, you may, and it is worth one call to find out.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told a soul. Not a parent, not a spouse, nobody. The Jordan plaintiffs waited five to ten years; the Berendo case reaches back nearly twenty.
You liked him. He was the teacher everybody liked, the coach, the one who saw something in you. The prosecutor in the Jordan trial told the jury that was the method.
You told a counselor, a coach, the office, and nothing came of it, or it got worse. At Los Alisos that is the complaint, almost word for word.
It never went as far as what was in the trial, or the lawsuit, and you figure that means it doesn't count. That's for a lawyer to weigh, not you.
He was never convicted, or he's dead, or he was never charged. The Barstow teacher died before trial and the district paid anyway. The civil case is against the school and runs on what it knew, not on a verdict.
You live in Nevada, Arizona, anywhere else now. The case sits in California and you don't need to.

The seven schools

You know which one it was; the questions just need it said. Barstow High School, 430 South First Avenue in Barstow. Jordan High, 6500 Atlantic Avenue in North Long Beach, and Lindbergh Middle, where the same teacher taught first; Jordan has a page of its own at /jordan-high-school-survivors. Edwin Markham Middle, 1650 East 104th Street in Watts. Berendo Middle, 1157 South Berendo Street in Los Angeles. Crenshaw High, 5010 11th Avenue, now called Crenshaw STEMM Magnet. Los Alisos Middle, 14800 South Jersey Avenue in Norwalk. Anna McKenney Intermediate, 1904 Huston Street in Marysville. A different California school? Last option in the first question, and say where.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue a school over something a teacher or a coach did years ago?

Former students have, at every school on this page, and at four of them the teacher's conviction is already on the record, so nobody has to prove from scratch who he was. 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: at each of the seven the defendant is a public school district, and the California rule is the same.

My school isn't one of the seven.

Pick the last option in the first question and say where. The record on this page belongs to these seven, but the law is statewide: the same birth-year rule, the same no-government-claim rule for a public school, and the firm we work with takes California cases wherever the school was.

Is there a deadline?

Depends when it was, and when you were born. If it was before 2024 the clock runs to your 40th birthday, or five years past the day you connected what happened to what it did to you, whichever is later; born in 1987 or later and you're inside it on age alone. From January 1, 2024 on there's no deadline at all. And against a public school there's no six-month government claim to have missed. A lawyer confirms your dates. That's the call.

The teacher died, or was never charged, or the lawsuit I've read about isn't mine. Is there still a case?

There can be. The Barstow teacher died in January 2021 before any trial; the district paid $2.4 million to settle the student's civil case that October. The Crenshaw teacher was never charged. A civil case runs against the district, on what it knew and what it did, and it is yours, not the other plaintiff's. A lawyer looks at your facts, not the criminal file.

What does it 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.

*Cash advances, where available, come from an independent litigation funding company, not from ME2 Survivors Alliance or any law firm, and are subject to that company's approval and terms. An advance is non-recourse: it is repaid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing. Amounts vary by case; the figure shown is the most that may be offered, not an offer, an approval or a determination that you qualify. Whether to take an advance is your decision and is never a condition of legal representation.