Decades-Old Sexual Abuse Cases Threaten to Bankrupt Carpinteria School District

Lawsuits Come as District Grapples with Contentious Labor Negotiations and Litigation Involving Employee Union President

Four ongoing lawsuits against Carpinteria Unified School District from men in their fifties and sixties say their elementary school principal, Virgil F. Williams, molested them as children while they were students at Main Elementary, which now houses a private preschool and is no longer a part of Carpinteria Unified School District. | Credit: Google Maps

Carpinteria Unified School District (CUSD) is being haunted by decades-old cases of sexual abuse by a dead principal from a school no longer in its district. Reporter Sophia Bollag broke the story in the San Francisco Chronicle, detailing these cases and the resulting financial catastrophe currently breathing down the district’s neck.

“Our district, like hundreds of others around the state, has been hit with lawsuits seeking damages for alleged abuse that happened decades earlier, in our case 50 years ago,” CUSD Superintendent Diana Rigby said in a statement to the Independent.

“The Chronicle article highlighted the situation that Carpinteria Unified and others like us find ourselves in.”

In it, Rigby says they may struggle to keep schools open because of four ongoing lawsuits from men in their fifties and sixties who say their elementary school principal, Virgil F. Williams, molested them as children.

Today, Williams and other school officials who could be held responsible are dead. The school itself, Main Elementary, now houses a private preschool and is no longer a part of the district. However, CUSD could face bankruptcy due to the 50-year-old scandal, at the same time it grapples with contentious labor negotiations and litigation involving CUSD employee union president Jay Hotchner.

“While we have great sympathy for victims, it’s not fair that today’s pupils and district taxpayers are going to be required to foot the bill,” Rigby said. “Neither today’s students, nor any current district staff had anything to do with the events that are being alleged. In fact, most district staff from that era are long deceased.”

As reported by Bollag, in 1986, “six boys testified against Williams in court, describing in detail how he touched them inappropriately after cornering them alone at the school.” The court heard testimony from the boys, one of whom was only 10, detailing how Williams grinded his pelvis against their legs while aroused and French-kissed them when they were 2nd graders at Main Elementary.

Williams was investigated for more than 70 allegations of misconduct involving boys aged 9 to 16, but only ones that occurred after 1980 could be prosecuted due to a statute of limitations.

Williams was found guilty of three counts of molestation of children under the age of 14 and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Current Lawsuits

The four men now suing the district say that Williams abused them at various times between the 1970s and 1981. They claim that they suffered psychological harm as result of the alleged abuse — which occurred in areas like a storage room at Main Elementary and is alleged to include forced oral sex — and are seeking damages for psychiatric care.

However, with all responsible parties being deceased, the district faces a unique difficulty in defending itself.

The men filed lawsuits under Assembly Bill 218, which opened a window between 2020 and 2022 for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to seek justice, regardless of when the abuse occurred. The law “essentially waived deadlines” for filing such suits, Bollag noted, and it has put considerable financial strain on school districts across California (along with churches and other institutions).

Public school districts face between $2 billion and $3 billion in costs from these lawsuits, according to a January 31 report by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team.

For Carpinteria Unified, a small district with only six schools, the lawsuits could break the bank. Its $42 million budget primarily covers teacher and staff salaries, for which it is currently in negotiations with the Carpinteria Association of United School Employees (CAUSE).

The situation is further complicated by the requirement that, to file insurance claims for old allegations, the district has to turn to the insurance provider they used at the time of the alleged abuse.

Carpinteria Unified’s provider in the ’70s was United Pacific. But they went out of business. That means the district is uninsured for these claims, and will likely be on the hook to pay them.

“The fact that the liability insurance we had in the 1970s when the abuse occurred is now gone, leaves us in an extremely precarious situation for we clearly do not have the funds to pay the types of judgments that are being incurred in other districts around the state,” Rigby said.

If a district cannot pay such a judgement, it will be forced into receivership, which essentially means it is taken over by the state. If that happens, Rigby will lose her job, along with the school board. Principals, too, may be forced to lay off teachers.

District officials are making a “last-ditch appeal” to the Supreme Court, according to Bollag, which they hope will save them from having to make steep cuts to the school’s programs, like the football and baseball teams.

“Three other school districts and Ventura County are each trying to convince the California Supreme Court to reconsider AB218’s constitutionality,” she reports. “Those asking the court for relief include small school districts, but also Los Angeles County, the most populous in the country, which says it faces bankruptcy because of the lawsuits.”

However, in other such appeals, the courts have essentially told school districts that they are supposed to feel the pain. That’s the point, so that institutions are penalized and work harder to prevent future cases of abuse against the children they are supposed to protect.

Carpinteria Unified Superintendent Diana Rigby | Credit: Paul Wellman (file)

Rigby contends that it is not fair that the district now has to pay for the crimes of its past administration.

“For the legislature to have resurrected these very old types of claims decades after the filing deadlines had already passed puts us in an impossible situation,” she said.

Unlike many “deep pocket businesses,” Rigby continued, CUSD is almost entirely financed by local property taxes, and their budget barely meets the state’s 3 percent minimum reserve requirement.

“How we could possibly be expected to pay any potential judgment while also fulfilling our commitments to our students and staff is a mystery,” she said.

“Instead of diverting much-needed funding from local school districts, the state should have found a different way to fairly treat victims. The lawsuits are not expected to go to trial before the end of this year,” she continued. “In the meantime, while our legal team is doing everything possible to defend us, we continue to be focused on providing our families and students with the best possible educational opportunities.”

A Pile of Financial Problems

As the district fights these lawsuits, they are dealing with other sticky fiscal affairs.

The district and the union just entered the fact-finding process of labor negotiations, which have now persisted for 21 months. Following the two parties agreeing that they were in a deadlock, the impasse process began.

First, a state-appointed mediator tries to help the parties come to an agreement. If that fails, fact-finding is the next step. An impartial expert is elected by the parties, and is assigned to determine the “facts” in dispute and issue a recommendation.

If the fact-finder’s decision is accepted, or the parties reach their own agreement, the process ends. But if not, the district can impose its last and final offer and the union has the right to strike.

The union is asking for salary increases that keep up with the cost of living, and claim that the district has the resources. However, the district has argued that its finances are limited — which will only be compounded should they be forced to pay any potential judgments.

Still, both parties maintain that they are committed to negotiating in good faith and hope to reach a fiscally responsible resolution soon.

Meanwhile, the district is still in ongoing litigation with the California Commission on Professional Competence. Last year, the commission found that union president Jay Hotchner’s dismissal from his teaching position at Carpinteria Middle School was unwarranted.

Hotchner was dismissed in November 2022, after working there for more than 20 years, for alleged “unprofessional” and inappropriate conduct toward students.

The commission found his dismissal unwarranted, however, and ordered he be reinstated. The district appealed the decision and sued the commission in February to deny the reinstatement, and the case is still ongoing. Hotchner claims that the district has spent more than $1 million on these legal fees.

“Despite the expense, we are challenging the decision because we have a responsibility to our students to fight to protect them from such conduct,” Rigby said about the appeal last year. “We will not put a dollar value on their well-being.”