Victim of sexual assault in Oceano wins latest lawsuit against school district

27 August 2024

By KAREN VELIE

A victim of sexual harassment by a second-grader at the former North Oceano Elementary School is suing the school district and several principals who allegedly knew about the abuse but failed to defend their charges. On Monday, a court ordered the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to release records of investigations and complaints against former second-grader Paul Ilger.

Ilger lived in San Luis Obispo and was teaching second grade at North Oceano Elementary School in 1988 when police arrested the 36-year-old man for sexually abusing his students. He later pleaded guilty to three counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and one count of oral sex with a child under 14. He spent four years in prison.

In 2002, Ilger was arrested for failure to register as a sex offender and sentenced to 32 months in prison. He died in 2021.

One of Ilger's victims, now in her 40s and known as “John Doe,” filed a lawsuit against the Lucia Mar Unified School District in 2022, alleging negligent hiring, lack of supervision, employment of unsuitable staff, failure to report suspected child abuse, and negligent supervision of minors.

In 1987 and 1989, Ilger gathered about a dozen boys and girls in his classroom during recess and encouraged them to engage in sexual behavior.

Ilger “forced the girls to expose their genitals to the boys in order to induce an erection and then had the students fondle each other while he watched, with his own genitals visible to the students,” says the complaint, filed by attorney James Lewis of Slater, Slater and Schulman in Beverly Hills. “Ilger penetrated the girls' vaginas with his fingers and touched the boys' genitals inappropriately under their clothing, and at times forced the plaintiff to place rubber bands around his penis.”

As a result of his teacher’s abuse, the lawsuit alleges, John Doe suffered “severe emotional
“Grief, humiliation and shame, as well as other significant harm which has had a detrimental effect on his subsequent education, career, social relationships and general quality of life.”

After receiving a subpoena for records relating to Ilger, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing refused to release the documents and later claimed that many of the records were confidential.

San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Michael Kelley not only allowed the commission to redact the names of the other victims, but also ordered the commission to comply with the subpoena.

A case management conference is planned for September 10.