SAN JOSE — Eleven girls who were sexually abused by a convicted former teacher are suing the Alum Rock Union School District, claiming administrators conspired to cover up his past misconduct and move him around schools instead of reporting him to authorities.
Israel Alejandro Santiago, 46, who taught music at three schools in the district, is currently serving a state prison sentence in Corcoran after being convicted last fall of multiple counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child. Six of the children represented in the criminal case are plaintiffs, according to the lawsuit filed June 12 by attorney Morgan Stewart.
Santiago was arrested in November 2022 following a San Jose police investigation spurred by reports that several students, parents and teachers made to an administrator. The allegations that led to his conviction involved acts dating back to September 2021, and included descriptions of Santiago taking children into a secluded office where he would “hold the girls on his lap and hug them tightly to his body,” according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
The physical contact alleged against Santiago — described at the time as standing 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 285 pounds — included touching students’ buttocks and touching a girl’s back underneath her bra strap, and in one reported instance, lifting a victim’s shirt.
When he was arrested, Santiago was teaching at Adelante Dual Language Academy, and students from that school provided the primary evidence in the criminal case. The lawsuit introduces two girls who allege that they were abused by Santiago while they were students at Ben Painter Elementary School.
According to the filing, the plaintiffs formally accuse the district and current and former administrators of “constructive fraud” in the alleged cover-up of Santiago’s behavior and several instances of negligence, while Santiago is accused of assault and sexual battery. They seek unspecified damages to cover economic losses from the abuse and punitive damages for the district and personnel involved.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that Santiago was suspected of sexual misconduct long before he got to Adelante, as far back as 2012, when he was teaching at Painter and the neighboring William Sheppard Middle School. Stewart, the attorney, cites a 2014 personnel investigation in which then-Sheppard principal Imee Almazan — who is now the district’s interim superintendent — admonished Santiago for having “failed to practice good judgment regarding physical contact with students, in particular, females.”
But instead of reprimanding or reporting Santiago to police, the lawsuit contends that then-Superintendent Stephen Fiss, Alamzan and district human resources head Ricardo Medina moved to transfer Santiago to Adelante, over the objections of Medina. Stewart quotes another statement that was reportedly in that personnel investigation: “I received a call from Ricardo stating that Superintendent Fiss did not want me to contact the police regarding this matter at this time.”
The lawsuit also chronicles multiple alleged instances when Santiago was warned about his touching of students, none of which ever led to an administrator or educator contacting police. Around the time Santiago was arrested, the lawsuit also emphasizes that then-Adelante principal Maria Gutierrez was fired by the district for her failure to report his misconduct, but no such consequence fell on Almazan.
Officials with the school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.