San Jose school district to pay $15 million in abuse settlement

Craig Richard Chandler Craig Richard Chandler Photo: San Jose Police Department Photo: San Jose Police Department Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close San Jose school district to pay $15 million in abuse settlement 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A San Jose school district agreed to pay $15 million as part of a settlement deal in a lawsuit accusing the district of negligence in the case of an elementary school teacher convicted of blindfolding young girls and molesting them in his classroom during recess between 2010 and 2012, an attorney said Monday.

The settlement brings to a close a three-week trial before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Socrates Manoukian in which Stephen Estey, who represented one of the victim’s families, argued the school should have reported the actions of 38-year-old Craig Chandler, who had documented incidences of sexual harassment prior to his arrest on child molestation charges.

Chandler was hired by the Evergreen School District in 2003 to teach at O.B. Whaley Elementary School in East San Jose, but Estey said that, within a year, administrators at the school began to receive sexual harassment complaints about the new second-grade teacher.

In 2008, the principal walked in on him alone with students he had blindfolded as part of a “sensory deprivation experiment,” a discovery that should have raised red flags, Estey said.

In 2011, Estey’s client went to the school and told administrators that Chandler had been molesting her daughter and he was arrested soon after.

He was eventually convicted of molesting five girls and sentenced to 75 years in prison.

Though the settlement of the lawsuit would not right the wrong done to Chandler’s victim’s, Estey said, he hoped that it would spur change in the district.

“The law says that, if you work in a school and have a reasonable suspicion of abuse, you have to report it. That did not happen in this case,” he said. “I hope that this settlement sends a message to the school district: you have to protect the kids.”

The district released a statement saying it hoped the closure of the case would allow the victims to move forward with their lives.

“We believe the settlement will allow the young women impacted by this man's actions to move forward and heal,” the staement read. “The Evergreen School District looks forward to continuing to build a positive future for the families of this community.”

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale