Eight former students at a vocational school in Temecula have filed a lawsuit alleging they were sexually harassed and touched inappropriately for months by the same instructor, who retaliated against them by handing out poor grades.
The suit, filed Feb. 14 in Los Angeles Superior Court, includes dozens of allegations against former San Joaquin Valley College instructor Trevor Doyle, who resigned in April 2023 and now teaches at a North Hollywood school for students pursuing careers in health care.
Doyle, the suit alleges, kissed one plaintiff in an elevator and attempted to kiss two others on different occasions, one in the campus parking lot and another while the two were alone in a classroom.
None of the plaintiffs is being named because they are the alleged victims of sexual harassment and sexual battery.
Students pursuing medical careers
Founded in 1977, San Joaquin Valley College is an accredited, private vocational school that offers accelerated certificate, associate and bachelor of science degree programs to prepare students for careers in the medical, business and industrial trade fields. It has 14 campuses statewide.
The college’s Temecula campus is approved to operate by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, which has no records of enforcement actions against the institution, said Matt Woodcheke, a spokesperson for the state Department of Consumer Affairs.
Taught surgical technology
Four of the plaintiffs were enrolled in Doyle’s surgical technology class from July 2021 through March 2022, while the other four were enrolled in the same course from October 2022 until he resigned to take another job. All of the plaintiffs allege the sexual harassment and inappropriate touching spanned the duration of the classes, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit names the college, Doyle and Arthur Martinez, the former director of the college’s surgical technology program, as defendants.
Doyle inappropriately touched some of the plaintiffs on multiple occasions — on their hips under the guise of tying their lab gowns, blocking a narrow hallway to brush up against their bodies, standing or sitting so close to them that their bodies touched, and putting his arms around them, the lawsuit alleges.
“Defendant Doyle (commented) that he wanted to tie a plaintiff up, while tying her lab gown,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit also alleges that Doyle asked multiple plaintiffs to spend New Year’s Eve with him and offered to book them a hotel room. He discussed his sex life in front of the plaintiffs and showed one of them a photo of a bikini-clad woman with large breasts, telling one the woman in the photo was a previous student. He told the plaintiff “he could not take his eyes off her breasts bouncing in class.”
Additionally, Doyle, according to the lawsuit, called a plaintiff on Valentine’s Day, told her she was beautiful, and said “he hoped her boyfriend was treating her right or he might have to steal her from him.”
Complaints not addressed
After the plaintiffs complained about Doyle, nothing was done and his inappropriate behavior was allowed to continue, according to the lawsuit.
Defendant Martinez, the suit alleges, hired Doyle knowing he was unqualified and that he had previously been accused of sexual harassment at his prior job. Martinez allegedly “brushed off” the plaintiffs’ complaints.
When one professor reported Doyle directly to Academic Dean Rafael Oropeza based on complaints from the plaintiffs, Martinez disciplined that professor, according to the lawsuit.
Martinez now works at the Riverside campus of North-West College, a vocational school preparing students for careers in the health care field. Reached by telephone on Tuesday, Feb. 20, Martinez declined to comment.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants’ failure to address the plaintiffs’ complaints allowed “harassment to fester from cohort to cohort.”
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Student retaliation
After the plaintiffs complained about Doyle, the instructor gave them “low and inaccurate grades,” according to the lawsuit.
“Defendant Doyle also ignored plaintiffs in class and refused to assist them with the class material, telling them to figure it out or look it up,” according to the lawsuit. “Defendant Doyle rolled his eyes at several plaintiffs when they raised their hands and told them to ‘shut up’ on various occasions.”
Doyle, now an instructor at Concorde Career College in North Hollywood, did not respond to repeated requests for comment via telephone, email and social media.
College spokesman Ryan Smith declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.