The following story first appeared in the print edition of the Daily Post on Friday. If you’re not picking up the Post in the mornings, you’re missing a lot of exclusive local stories.
BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Parents held signs on the sidewalk and students walked out of class on the first day of school at Fletcher Middle School in Palo Alto, where a P.E. teacher who was accused of raping a student in 2001 has been reinstated.
Parent Clark Barrett, who is leading a petition asking the district to reassign the teacher away from students, said he’s looking for reassurance that the school is safe.
Barrett said board members and administrators — including Superintendent Don Austin, HR Director Herb Espiritu and Principal Melissa Howell — have been hiding behind lawyers because of an ongoing lawsuit from the teacher. “They made this decision to place him at a school, so we all feel like they need to engage with the community and concerns around this placement, which they really haven’t done,” Barrett said.
“The kids are understandably concerned and scared and don’t feel safe,” Barrett said.
Peter Colombo, 58, of Redwood City, was accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in a locker room at Jordan (now Greene) Middle School in 2001.
The victim’s husband sent the district an anonymous email in 2022 detailing the alleged assault, and police arrested Colombo six months later.
Charges dropped
Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Nik Warrior announced he was dropping the case in April 2023 because he didn’t have sufficient evidence. He said trauma inflicted on children can impact their ability to remember aspects of an attack.
Colombo sued the district in February 2024 for allegedly violating his due process rights, defaming him and discriminating against him for being a recovered alcoholic and a man.
Colombo said the district withheld documents showing that he worked at a different school than the victim at the time of the alleged incident.
Colombo’s attorney, Evan Nelson, said in an interview Thursday that the school district needs to clean up the mess it created.
“I completely understand the concerns of parents, because the district created stigma and misinformation and has done nothing to set the record straight and to provide proper, truthful and complete information,” Nelson said. “I absolutely abhor the fact that these miscreants have forced it to go to this point.”
No comment
Superintendent Austin has declined to comment on Colombo, except to confirm that he’s teaching P.E. again.
Nelson said Colombo loves to teach but can’t get a job somewhere else until the district clears him publicly.
“If they had a shred of evidence, they would’ve taken action and disciplined him … Instead, they continue to retaliate and make it so difficult, so emotionally taxing, hoping that he won’t continue on,” Nelson said.
Colombo started teaching P.E. in the Palo Alto Unified School District in 1998. He also coached freshman football and JV girl’s basketball at Palo Alto High School and was the head coach of the baseball team from 2000 to 2005.
If they don’t have enough information to charge Colombo, he’s an innocent man under the law. The onus is on these protesters to prove he’s guilty — and they haven’t done that. So they should leave him alone. I suspect Austin is going to have to write him a big check.
If people only knew the truth. His accuser says she did not hear or see the person, she just knew it was Colombo. Colombo gets his life and reputation ruined on that! That would not hold up in a middle school principals office let alone in a court of law.
As a good fiend of his, he got railroaded by the Dauber crowd and that is a fact. Austin just jumped on that train with his mouth and the politics of this whole thing and got absolutely BURNED!
Colombo is and always was a very effective teacher and coach who could be brass and inappropriate at times with his mouth, he never claimed to be an angel. For sure if you were timid as a student he could seem tough and intimidating. I personally respect the heck out of Pete because he overcame his demons with alcoholism and has been in recovery for years, decades, and is that not what we want to teach our kids: when we fall or struggle to get back up.
This guy got railroaded because the legal system, school officials and etc…..did not want to get Perskeyed. Just look up the Persky situation and a 1st grader could put together what happened to Colombo. By the way Ken Dauber was the school board president when all this started.
The protest is less about whether Mr. Colombo is innocent or guilty and more about the appalling way the district has mishandled the situation. Unfortunately, his entire story, including the rape allegations as well as a long history of trouble with the law and problematic interactions with students, is now a matter of public record. So, regardless of the truth of these charges, it is obvious to anyone who actually thinks about it that a decision to put him back in the classroom would strike the community as controversial at best, and terrifying and traumatizing at worst.
Surely, a district committed to “the promise” would anticipate this and have a plan, ANY plan for managing such a decision. The truth is that the “plan” consisted of keeping it secret, denying it as long as possible, shifting the blame when the truth came out, and ultimately hiding behind lawyers claiming there was no other choice.
It has hurt the kids. Many are deeply anxious and fearful. For some, it ruined their whole summer. Now, they are afraid to go to school. They are afraid to go to class.
Someone needs to step up and handle this situation like a grown-up, by putting the kids first. What’s needed is reassurance that they are safe. The last public statements from Superintendent Austin were to the effect that no one with Mr. Colombo’s record should have the right to work with students. The charges were dropped, yes, but the allegations were not retracted. The district even supposedly did its own investigation, but somehow, bafflingly, the result of that has been kept secret as well. So how can we reassure our kids? What evidence do we have that they are indeed safe?
The decision to bring Mr. Colombo back was made with no justification through an unknown process behind closed doors under legal duress. That decision is not one that any reasonable person can trust. It needs to be unmade as soon as possible. Mr. Colombo should be put back on TOSA. Then, if the district really wants to bring him back, they should appoint an independent committee to produce a report building a case for whether he should or should not be teaching middle school kids. The committee should include parents and students, and it should *not* include anyone who is named in the lawsuit, as they clearly have a conflict of interest.
“Brash and inappropriate” but as a friend you think he should be reinstated as a teacher because that’s what he wants to be and not to worry because the “timid” kids might find him “tough and intimidating”. Not everyone deserves to be a teacher even ex-alcoholics. According to one of my kids, jokingly to a colleague, Colombo said this himself in front of a class full of students at Jordan. My kids thought he was a douche
Our kids didn’t like him. And I believe the victim. This man shouldn’t be anywhere near a classroom. His inappropriate behavior towards young girls was well known by students and parents alike. The kids come first. You’re only “innocent” if you didn’t do it.
There’s no such thing as an “ex-alcoholic.” He’s an alcoholic in recovery and anyone can relapse.
Liberals enjoy protesting and voicing their opinions, they are angry people. I never see conservatives protesting. Two of my adult children had Mr. Columbo as their P.E. teacher and thought he was okay, he brought energy to class.
Funny enough, your own public comment is a form of protest — and it’s respected. So dismissing others for speaking out is hypocritical.
Saying “liberals are angry” and “conservatives never protest” is just a false generalization. Both sides protest when they feel strongly, and this isn’t about politics anyway. Parents are raising concerns because of how the district handled things, not because of party labels.
Your adult kids’ experience years ago doesn’t cancel out what families and students are facing now. Times change, and their voices deserve to be heard.