Redlands Unified Settles Another Sexual Claim, This Time for $8.5 Million

14Dec
by Leticia Chavez-Garcia

Once again the Redlands Unified School District (RUSD) in San Bernardino County has had to pay out a large settlement for yet another sexual abuse claim. This time the settlement was for 8.5 million dollars paid to four victims  who were sexally abused by former drama teacher, Joel Everett Chandler Koonce.

The drama teacher has been charged with 15 felony charges that are beyond disgusting. Why does this continue to happen in Redlands schools? Is this also happening everywhere? How do we prevent perverts from coming into the classroom with our kids? Parents at Redlands Unified must be horrified that this is happening in their schools.

So, you might be wondering how the district can afford to pay all of these claims. The money to pay all of these settlements is mostly paid through insurance and not the general fund. With the exception of the district’s deductible, which is different in every district and is currently $1,000,000.00 at RUSD due to the number of settlements in the last five years being so high.  The district has now paid more than $30 million in the last five years.

The district is insured through SAFER (Schools Association For Excess Risk), which provides liability insurance to many agencies across California. Redlands Unified is one of 78 agencies in SAFER’s Southern California Regional Liability Excess Fund. It pays for settlements in cases of alleged acts of negligence by the district or its employees. This also means that if and when the district makes it too costly for the other districts in the collective, they can be removed.  

It’s obvious that there are some serious issues in this district. We hope the leadership there will be able to stop the madness and not continue to put kids at risk. Parents ought to be vigilant and carry very open conversations with their children about how they are being treated. I have not read anywhere that parents are up in arms and storming the school board meeting. I wonder why.

What do you think?

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Leticia Chavez-Garcia

Leticia Chavez-Garcia is a Mother, Grandmother, former Middle School Teacher, former Member of a School Board of Education and an Education Advocate for hundreds of parents and students in the Inland Empire. Having become a mother at 15, Leticia knows what it’s like to be a single mother trying to navigate the education system. Leticia received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science and Public Administration from California Baptist University and a Masters’ Degree in Education Technology from Cal State Fullerton in her 30’s. Leticia has used her knowledge and experience to help hundreds of families as an Education Advocate in the Inland Empire and currently works as an Education Specialist.

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