The Napa Valley Unified School District and Napa Valley College face a lawsuit alleging that school district staff, including two teachers, failed to prevent an autistic teenager's sexual abuse - including a sexual assault in a bathroom - at the hands of two other students.
The mother of a male special-needs student sued NVUSD on Sept. 4 in Napa County Superior Court, saying that one of her son's classmates in a post-high school special education program repeatedly molested him during school hours for more than a year, while another classmate assaulted him on campus in June 2023.
In addition to the school district, the suit targets the teen's two schoolmates in NVUSD's Transition Partnership Project as well as teachers Corey Roche and Maya Davis. NVC, which hosts the Transition program, was also named in the complaint.
The student's mother seeks a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages, alleging assault, sexual battery, negligence and breach of mandatory duties to protect students.
Requests for comment by NVUSD and the college were not immediately returned.
(The Napa Valley Register generally does not publish the names of people who say they were sexually abused. Last week's court filing identifies the student's two alleged abusers, but the Register is not disclosing their names because Napa court records do not list any criminal charges connected to the case.)
Walnut Creek-based attorney Francesca Serrano wrote that her client's son has received special education in the Napa school system throughout his childhood since receiving a diagnosis of autism as a 3-year-old. Later, he was enrolled into the Transition project, a day program conducted at NVC that provides continued learning and adult supervision for special-needs youth after their high school years.
According to NVUSD's website, Transition is a partnership between schools and California's Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Special-needs students who have finished the 12th grade receive staff support in career guidance, vocational training, employment preparation and other services to better prepare them for jobs or further education.
One of the two students implicated in the suit became the alleged victim's Transition classmate in 2022 and proceeded to assault him, about eight to 10 times a month, starting that October and continuing until November 2023 - by rubbing his genitals on his classmate's back, sometimes restricting him in a restroom while doing so, according to the lawsuit.
After the victim reported the abuse to his mother and father in 2023, the parents learned that Transition staff had observed some of the incidents and told him not to let his classmate "do that" to him, without informing his parents or law enforcement, the complaint alleges.
The victim's parents, Transition staff and NVUSD agreed to a safety plan in August 2023 to prevent further assaults, but the student continued to be molested for another three months, according to the court filing. In November, the parents were told that school staff would ensure that the two classmates would never be alone together, but the student was again assaulted at Transition in November 2024, wrote Serrano.
Meanwhile, a second Transition student had sexually assaulted the victim on June 6, 2023 inside an NVC restroom, which the victim was prevented from leaving, according to the lawsuit.
"NVUSD staff failed to protect Plaintiff from being sexually assaulted despite being put on notice of the harm being caused to Plaintiff on more than one occasion," Serrano wrote. "Neither Transitions staff or NVUSD staff reported any of the sexual assaults committed against Plaintiff to Adult Protective Services or police."
The student's mother alleges assault, battery, sexual battery and false imprisonment by her son's Transition classmates. The school district, college, and teachers Roche and Davis face various allegations including negligence, negligent hiring, breach of state-required duties to protect students, and inflicting emotional distress.