BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A mother has settled her lawsuit against the Palo Alto Unified School District that said her daughter was touched inappropriately by three boys in kindergarten at Ohlone Elementary School, and teachers and administrators did nothing to help.
The district allegedly downplayed the touching as “a game” and assumed the girl was exaggerating, the suit said.
The girl “experienced profound institutional betrayal” that resulted in nightmares and trauma, according to the federal lawsuit by attorney Aaron Zisser.
Zisser sent an update to the court on Monday saying that he will finalize a settlement with the district within 90 days. Judge Eumi Lee has to approve the settlement since it’s on behalf of a minor, court records show. Until then, Zisser said he can’t release details of the deal.
The lawsuit named former Superintendent Don Austin, former Ohlone Principal Elsa Chen, Title IX Coordinator Robert Andrade, classroom teachers Roni Kraft, Monica Lynch and Avery Olesen and Title IX investigators Kelly Whitney, Ashley Hull and Chelsea Tibbs.
Title IX is a 1972 federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education.
At lunch and on playground
The boys allegedly went under a lunch table and poked the girl over her clothes between her legs on Feb. 6, 2024.
They kept poking the girl after she kicked them and told them to stop, the suit said.
One of the boys touched the girl again during recess two days later and in a classroom on March 1, 2024, the suit said.
“The boys required ongoing redirection and supervision to ensure they remained separate,” the suit said.
The girl’s parents filed a Title IX complaint and asked to move her to another classroom on March 14, 2024, the suit said.
Ohlone had five or six other classrooms available but didn’t move the girl, so she transferred to another school, the suit said.
Austin asked to intervene
The parents asked Austin for help but he didn’t intervene, the suit said.
Chen and Andrade handled the initial review before bringing in investigators Kelly Whitney and Ashely Hull from Grand River Solutions.
Whitney investigated, and Hull made a decision based on Whitney’s report. The suit claimed they had a conflict of interest because they work together.
Whitney allegedly didn’t interview two of the boys and left out her interview with the girl’s parents, the suit said.
Whitney also ignored how the incident impacted the girl, who needed therapy, the suit said.
“There was extensive documentation of this impact available to the investigator, including medical documentation,” the suit said.
Whitney instead portrayed the girl as happy and carefree, overlooking that children have unpredictable reactions to abuse, the suit said.
Based on Whitney’s investigation, Hull found the poking happened but “cannot reasonably be compared to more sensual, lingering touches like massaging and fondling, or to grabbing,” according to the suit.
The parents disagreed, arguing that touching the genitals is inherently sexual if it’s done on purpose. They said Whitney and Hull were biased against their daughter because they didn’t want to penalize the young boys.
“This approach indulges in gendered tropes about well-meaning boys and overly sensitive girls,” the suit said.
After an appeal, attorney Chelsea Tibbs said the touching wasn’t sexual or “objectively offensive” because of the age of the children, the suit said.
The lawsuit is one of a dozen cases pending against the school district. Other suits allege unchecked bullying, racist attacks, injured students, inadequate special education and retaliation by administrators.
The school board voted on Feb. 10 to pay former PE teacher Peter Colombo $3.25 million to settle his case accusing the district of mishandling an unsubstantiated rape allegation against him from 2002.
On April 15, the district agreed to fulfill a records request from two parents and pay $29,459 in attorney fees.
Parent Edith Cohen sued the district on April 21 and May 4 along with four other parents.
The first lawsuit challenges the board’s handling of a separation agreement with Austin, who received a $596,802 payout to resign.
The second lawsuit alleges the district hasn’t paid $38,311 in attorney fees that were ordered in September 2024 for losing a math-related lawsuit.
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