SUIT: SCHOOL OFFICIALS DID NOTHING TO PREVENT SEX ABUSE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENT

Josephine Rodriguez ABOUT SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS, SCHOOL OFFICIALS, SCHOOL PROPERTY, SENIOR SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS, SEX CRIMES COMMITTED IN SCHOOL, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS COMMITTING CRIMES IN PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF TRUST, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS WHO REOFFEND, SHAME ON YOU, TEACHERS SCHOOL STAFF, WORST OF THE WORST

December 3, 2020
Rick Daysog
Hawaii News Now

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - A new lawsuit alleges officials at a Big Island school were aware of allegations a staff member was sexually abusing a special education student but did nothing.

Stanton Caluag, 64, was an educational assistant at Kealakehe High School. He is now serving a year in jail after he pleaded guilty to third-degree sex assault in June.

The victim was 18 at the time and his grandmother said Caluag began molesting him two months after his mother died.

“It’s devastating. You know, he just lost his mom and for somebody to do that to him,” said the grandmother, Ann.

“He was touching his private areas in class and he was sitting on him.”

Hawaii News Now is not using her last name to protect the victim’s identity.

In filings in the criminal case, Big Island deputy Prosecutor Kate Perazich said school staff witnessed Caluag “touching (the boy’s) hair, neck and cheek” and saw him “sitting on” the victim’s lap.

The suit, which also names the state Department of Education, alleges school officials ignored these eyewitness accounts of abuse.

The family’s attorney, Michael Green, said one staff member who witnessed the abuse actually wrote a report. But Green said the report was buried and was not provided to authorities.

“They should be thrown out of the school, walked out of the school, never be given a chance to educate,” Green said. “This is disgusting.”

DOE declined comment on the lawsuit, citing ongoing litigation.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/12/03/suit-school-officials-did-nothing-prevent-sex-abuse-special-education-student/

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