$15 Million Settlement for Families of Girls Molested by Evergreen School District Teacher

Craig Chandler taught second grade at O.B. Whaley Elementary School in San Jose, part of the Evergreen School District. Beginning around 2011, parents reported suspicious behavior to school officials. Those reports were not acted upon. It was not until 2012, when a parent bypassed the school and went directly to law enforcement, that police arrested Chandler the same day.

Chandler had been keeping girls back from recess, blindfolding them, and subjecting them to what prosecutors described as a 'feel-and-touch game.' He had even recorded some of his conduct in school paperwork, framing the abuse as 'school lessons.' In 2012 and 2013, he was convicted on five counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts on minors and sentenced to 75 years to life in prison. The school's former principal was also convicted of a misdemeanor for failing to report suspected child abuse.

Five girls were victimized in total. One family settled separately with the district in the year before the main civil case concluded. Attorney B. Robert Allard represented the remaining four families in the civil suit against the Evergreen School District, naming school officials, the vice principal, and the HR director as defendants. The lawsuit alleged the district ignored warning signs and failed to protect students in its care.

One family had originally sought $30 million. The four families accepted the $15 million settlement, in part, to spare the children from testifying again. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Socrates Manoukian approved the settlement on June 15, 2015. The district did not admit wrongdoing. As part of the agreement, the families agreed to forgo any further legal action against the district.