SACRAMENTO — The parents of an autistic Birch Lane Elementary School student have filed a civil lawsuit against the Davis and Woodland school districts, claiming school officials were negligent in their employment of a bus driver who was accused of molesting the 6-year-old girl back in 2010.
The former bus driver also is named as a defendant in the complaint, which was filed Feb. 13 in Yolo Superior Court. His alleged conduct was the subject of a lengthy investigation by Davis police and the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, but no charges were filed due to insufficient evidence.
William and Emily Gutierrez of Davis, the girl’s parents, appeared at a news conference Wednesday at the offices of their attorney, Joseph C. George, saying they want to make other families aware of the allegations and urge them to report any inappropriate behavior to law enforcement.
“Nobody else got to be aware of what happened to my daughter,” William Gutierrez said. “The only thing you can do is warn other people, and hope that justice is served.”
The couple said their suspicions arose in late August 2010, when the girl — identified as “Nancy Doe” in the lawsuit — who has limited verbal skills, complained of an “owie” while pointing to her groin area. At about the same time, William Gutierrez said he noticed what appeared to be inappropriate contact between the bus driver and his daughter, including her sitting on his lap inside the bus.
With no transportation system of its own, the Davis Joint Unified School District contracts with the Woodland school district, as well as with other public and private transportation providers, for its busing needs.
Emily Gutierrez said she approached Woodland Joint Unified School District officials shortly after her daughter’s complaint and asked to view video recordings from her daughter’s afternoon bus rides, but was refused. Instead, then-director of transportation John Huston said he would view them himself, according to the lawsuit.
“Within three days, a CPS report was made” by a Woodland school district official, attorney George said. A redacted copy of the Sept. 2, 2010, report provided by George says “sexual abuse has been observed on video with the alleged perp(etrator) kissing the minor on the lips multiple times and touching/rubbing the minor on various body parts.”
The bus driver, a 13-year district employee, was placed on administrative leave and later resigned from his job. Reached by phone Wednesday, the Woodland resident said he had only just learned about the lawsuit and would be consulting an attorney before making any comment.
He is not being named by The Enterprise because he was not charged with a crime.
George also displayed at Wednesday’s news conference several still shots he said were culled from the videos, two of which appear to show the bus driver kissing the girl on the lips, while a third shows an adult male lying over a child on a bus seat while other children sit nearby.
According to George, a Davis police report makes reference to an odd exchange between “Nancy’s” teacher at Birch Lane and the bus driver, who in February 2010 reportedly told the woman “he was concerned because the day before Nancy’s pants had come down and she wouldn’t pull them back up, so he kept Nancy beside him in driving her home.”
The teacher emailed three of her supervisors about the conversation the next day, but “we do not know what came of that report,” George said, adding that his clients were not informed of that incident until last year.
It would be another seven months before the bus driver’s alleged conduct was reported to the Davis Police Department in September 2010. Lt. Tom Waltz said his agency conducted a four-month investigation before submitting the case to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, which made several requests for follow-up information that extended the probe into 2014.
“After thoroughly reviewing all the evidence, we determined there was insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven said Wednesday. Both a specialized child sexual abuse prosecutor and the office’s then-assistant chief deputy reviewed the case, he added.
George contends the investigation “languished” while in the hands of Davis police. Waltz, however, says it was conducted thoroughly.
“A thorough investigation takes time. These types of cases, especially involving children, are complex,” Waltz said. “It’s not unusual for the DA’s office, especially in complicated cases, to ask for additional review.”
The 16-page lawsuit alleges sexual battery, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision and retention of an employee, and breach of mandatory duty for the alleged negligent supervision of a special-education student.
Officials from both the Davis and Woodland school districts declined to comment on the lawsuit’s allegations, but both stressed their commitment to students’ welfare.
“We take allegations seriously and take swift and appropriate action,” including administrative reviews and referrals to law enforcement when warranted, Davis school district spokeswoman Maria Clayton said. Davis school officials cooperated with the Woodland district in its investigation of the 2010 allegations, she added.
Tom Pritchard, an assistant superintendent with the Woodland district, noted that officials there immediately alerted police after learning of the alleged conduct aboard bus number 880.
“Student safety and well being is an unwavering priority for our district,” Pritchard said. “Anytime we get allegations of compromised safety, we swiftly act on that.”
No court dates have been set in the lawsuit, and George said Wednesday that the discovery phase is in the beginning stages. The Gutierrezes, meanwhile, say the alleged molestation continues to affect their daughter, now 10, and the rest of the family as well.
“As a dad, I kind of just felt like a failure,” William Gutierrez said. “Still to this day, there’s times where I feel she’s distant … just for a simple kiss on the cheek, so it still hits home. It’s not going away. It’s still every day for us.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
