The Orange County Board of Education on Friday, Feb. 17, called for an independent investigation of the Orange County School of the Arts, which faces three lawsuits alleging sexual abuse.
In recent months, two former students at the county’s premier art campus filed lawsuits against the well-known charter school alleging sexual abuse by an administrator or teacher — including founder Ralph Opacic and a jazz trumpeter who won a Grammy award earlier this month.
Since last fall, that makes three lawsuits against the school known as OCSA in Santa Ana.
Meanwhile, other former students and their supporters have rallied outside the school and pleaded with the OC Board of Education to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct.
“We have heard the public, and we take this very seriously,” Board President Lisa Sparks said. “We take these allegations to heart.”
Board member Tim Shaw said: “I’m a father of six kids. I send them off to public school every morning, and you hope and pray that they’re safe at school. It’s very sickening to hear allegations of adults taking advantage of students at school.”
On Friday, the board convened for a special closed session to discuss only one item: adopting a resolution that asks county Superintendent of Schools Al Mijares to investigate issues regarding the hiring, supervision and safety procedures of OCSA.
OCSA was granted its most recent charter by the Orange County Board of Education and falls under the county office of education’s umbrella. As a charter, however, it can hire its own employees and create its own curriculum. Under state law, the county superintendent may monitor or investigate a charter’s operation “based upon written complaints by parents or other information that justifies the investigation,” the board’s resolution states.
Mijares, in a statement read at the meeting, indicated that he has “initiated the process of reviewing and monitoring the operations” of the…
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