Sacramento County school admin failed to stop student from spreading child porn, lawsuit alleges
A high school student is accused of spreading child sexual abuse material of his ex-girlfriend, according to a recently filed lawsuit in the Sacramento Superior Court. Administrators at their school are also accused of knowing the video existed and not reporting the issue to authorities.
On behalf of her daughter, a parent is suing a student, his parents and his step parent for child sexual abuse and infliction of emotional distress. She is also suing three Bella Vista High School employees and San Juan Unified School District for negligence.
The Sacramento Bee is not naming the students or their parents to protect the identity of minors.
The complaint alleges the following events: in September 2023, a male student secretly recorded the plaintiff performing oral sex at the baseball field dugout on the Bella Vista campus. A few days later, the male student told her that he had a video recording of this encounter on his phone.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that the plaintiff brought this information to the attention of three school employees, Athletic Director John Hardwick, football coach Jim Gray and Vice Principal Edward Moore, who failed to report this information to the authorities as mandated reports of child sexual abuse. The male student then circulated the video to others.
The plaintiffs allege that the student defendant was able to sexually assault a minor on campus and then distribute child sexual abuse material due to negligence on the part of the school, the district and the three employees who were informed of the video.
Coach Gray recently announced his immediate retirement on X, formerly known as Twitter, around two weeks after the lawsuit was filed. Gray coached the team at Bella Vista High for around four years and has coached college and high school football for 38 years. He is also a Auburn Recreation and Parks District board member and recently won reelection for another four-year term.
None of the defendants of the case returned requests for comment on the lawsuit.
