David Braff was first accused of misconduct years ago but has since held a series of school jobs. The authorities are investigating the possibility of additional victims.
A Los Angeles assistant principal was arrested on Friday and charged with molesting eight children between 2015 and 2019, while he was working as an elementary school counselor in Ventura County.
The defendant, David Lane Braff Jr., 42, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., is accused of molesting children aged 6 to 10 in an office at McKevett Elementary School in the Santa Paula Unified School District, roughly 70 miles west of Los Angeles.
The charges emerged out of a cold case sexual abuse unit, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said. He noted that officials at McKevett Elementary had reached out to authorities at the time of the alleged incidents.
Nevertheless, Mr. Braff has held several jobs in public education since and has also volunteered in a number of programs for children.
Mr. Nasarenko described an “extensive search for the possibility of other victims at other school sites and locations.”
“This shakes the very foundation of the notion of a school site as a safe learning environment,” he said.
Mr. Braff is being held on $3 million bail and will be arraigned on Monday.
Carol Braff, Mr. Braff’s mother, said that “of course” he denied the charges. “He’s worked with children his whole life. He’s never been in trouble,” she said in a brief phone call.
In a written statement, the Santa Paula school district said it had been aware of sexual abuse allegations against Mr. Braff since 2018, and had reported him then to law enforcement and begun an internal investigation. It is unclear why the earlier accusations did not result in charges.
On Saturday, the school district did not respond to questions about whether it had tried to inform Mr. Braff’s subsequent employers of the accusations against him.
According to a profile on LinkedIn that matches the name, likeness and work history of the suspect, Mr. Braff left his Santa Paula job in 2019, and then worked for a charter school network.
He eventually left that position as well, and was most recently an assistant principal and counselor at Ingenium Charter Middle School in Los Angeles.
Ingenium Schools did not respond to questions about Mr. Braff on Saturday. In a statement to NBC Los Angeles, Ingenium Charter Middle School said it had been “devastated to learn of the recent allegations” against him, and had taken “immediate actions to ensure the safety of its students.”
In every state, teachers have to pass criminal background checks before being hired. But advocates for children have long warned about a practice known as “passing the trash,” in which school staff members accused of sexual misconduct, but not criminally charged, are able to pursue new positions without the disclosure of allegations or workplace disciplinary actions against them.
The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2015, sought to end that practice. It required states to adopt laws preventing schools from aiding individuals in getting new education jobs, if there is probable cause to believe the employee had engaged in sexual misconduct.
But those regulations have not always been strictly followed. According to a 2022 report from the federal Department of Education, only 10 states required school job applicants to disclose any history of investigations related to sexual misconduct. Eighteen states required current or past employers to disclose such matters to prospective employers.
California only recently strengthened such protections.
In late September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill requiring school job applicants to disclose the names of all of their previous school employers. It also requires hiring schools to contact those employers and ask about allegations of egregious misconduct, and requires past employers to provide reports of investigations and disciplinary actions.
That law was not yet in effect when Mr. Braff was hired for his most recent position.
The LinkedIn profile states that Mr. Braff received a “counselor of the month” award in Santa Paula, and that he had experience working in after-school programs and youth recreation. “I look to continue in the school counseling career path,” the profile says. “I have great communication, love working with people and students, and problem solving skills as well.”
By Dana Goldstein – NYTimes