PALO ALTO — Three former students of Castilleja School have sued their alma mater on the grounds that administrators failed to vet and protect them against a math tutor who is currently facing dozens of charges accusing him of sexually abusing girls.
The plaintiffs allege that the prestigious all-girls school had been alerted in the past to abusive and suspicious behavior by Mark Allan Hodes, a longtime math tutor who worked from his Palo Alto home prior to his August 2020 arrest.
Hodes, 79, faces 55 child molestation-related charges in Santa Clara County, and authorities state that 17 former students have implicated him in sexually abusive behavior. The charges were sent toward trial after a preliminary examination in 2022, and the case remains in pretrial proceedings, court records show. He is currently out of jail custody.
In the lawsuit, filed last week by the Bay Area law firms Cerri, Boskovich & Allard and Mary Alexander & Associates, three former students identified as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 described being molested during tutoring sessions spanning 2007 and 2016. They contend that though Hodes was not an employee of the school, educators referred students to his services and gave him open access to the Palo Alto campus.
“The abuse of these students was entirely preventable had the school placed the safety of its students above (its) reputation,” attorneys Lauren Cerri and Mary Alexander said in a statement. “The case also raises questions about the responsibility of schools in vetting and monitoring non-employees who have access to students, as well as the potential long-term consequences of failing to address early warning signs of predatory behavior.”
In response to the lawsuit, Castilleja School released a statement asserting that “providing a safe and nurturing learning environment for our students is Castilleja’s top priority,” and that the school was “stunned and heartbroken” by the news of Hodes’ arrest in 2020. The school also released to this news organization a letter sent to parents of students addressing the new litigation.
“You may see reports about this case in the news, so first we want to acknowledge that this kind of news can be unsettling,” reads the letter, authored by Interim Head of School Julia Russell Eells. “We also want to assure you that Castilleja’s policies and practices regarding student safety are comprehensive and robust. All employees undergo thorough background checks before they begin working at Castilleja. We also require our faculty, staff, coaches, and leadership to participate in regular training in how to prevent, identify and report suspected abuse and harassment, and maintain healthy boundaries for adult interactions with students.”
The statement did not address what, if any, protocols are in place for non-school employees with significant interaction with students, a complexity highlighted by the plaintiffs. The lawsuit clashes with the school’s statement, accusing administrators and educators of breaching their duties to students by “failing to so detect and deter Hodes’ grooming behaviors and sexual abuse” and “failing to properly supervise Hodes on school grounds especially in light of prior complaints of Hodes’ inappropriate interactions with students.”
Doe 1 claims that during the 2012-13 school year, Hodes touched her inappropriately during tutoring sessions, including running his hand on her bare thigh and underneath her skirt. Doe 2, who claimed abuse between 2012 and 2016, and Doe 3, whose claims span 2007 and 2011, described similar experiences. The accounts align with testimony given by reported victims at Hodes’ preliminary examination, who recalled him routinely making uncomfortable contact with other parts of their bodies despite his job requiring no such physical proximity.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified economic and other damages against the school and Hodes, further contends that Castilleja staff had been notified as far back as 1992 that Hodes was suspected of “inappropriate grooming behavior” with his female students, and that Hodes had a sordid reputation among students who gave him crude nicknames.
The plaintiffs also assert that his alleged behavior led to him being banned from campus at another other local high school, but that “one or more Castilleja employees continued to recommend Hodes as a tutor, allow him to freely access campus, and chose not to take any further actions to deter his abuse of its students.”