Author: Clint Paulson

A lawsuit filed late last year in Superior Court alleges that Wyatt Davidson carried on an intimate and sexual relationship with a student from March 9, 2017 to April 28, 2017. The lawsuit claims that during that time Davidson was acting as the coach of the Torrance High School (THS) girls’ track team.

Per the lawsuit, the plaintiff identified by the fictitious name of Jane Doe joined the THS track team as a freshman in September of 2015. Defendant Wyatt Davidson was Jane’s coach and the person with whom Jane had immediate and direct contact with when training or competing.

During the summer of 2016, the team regularly held practice even though school was not in session. That summer, per the lawsuit, Davidson would frequently send Jane text messages which caused Jane to feel puzzled and uneasy. After a meet in early March 2017 at North High School, Davidson pulled Jane aside and told her that he liked her ever since she first started track as a freshman in September of 2015. Jane felt cornered, embarrassed, and pressured during this encounter and when Davidson asked if she liked him Jane said, “no.” The suit alleges that the THS track Head Coach, Kyle Irvine, was present during this encounter.

The lawsuit further alleges that Davidson persisted and the pair began an inappropriate sexual relationship. During this time, the two would meet before, during, and after practices and track meets. Davidson would take Jane back to his father’s house which was located across the street from the THS campus. While at the house Davidson and Jane engaged in intimate physical and sexual contact.

Per the lawsuit, prior to her encounters with the Defendant, Jane had not had any intimate physical or sexual experience with anyone. She was inexperienced, innocent, confused, and overpowered physically and emotionally by an older, experienced mature man who was also her mentor and authority figure having been her coach for almost two years. Jane was 16 at the time the alleged sexual relationship occurred.

The suit also says that THS track Head Coach Kyle Irvine and Assistant Coach Chris Rasmussen were present during and after all THS practices and meets and that both were able and duty-bound to observe Davidson engaging in obvious, suspicious, and inappropriate personal contact with Jane. Per the suit, the open contact between the two became apparent and did arouse the suspicion of several of Jane’s teammates on the girls’ track team. The suit asserts that in late April 2017 Davidson’s conduct was reported to the Torrance Police Department by unnamed persons who were not TUSD employees and that Davidson was suspended by the District in early May 2017.

The lawsuit claims sexual harassment, sexual assault and battery, negligence, breach of statutory duty and intentional infliction of emotional distress. As a result of her injuries, Jane suffers from physical and emotional pain, suffering, worry and anxiety.

The suit also names Superintendent Dr. Mannon, THS Principal Karim Girgis, THS Athletic Director George Tachibana, THS Head Track Coach Kyle Irvine, and THS Assistant Track Coach Chris Rasmussen as management defendants. Per the suit, these defendants were each entrusted with the care, nurturing, instruction and supervision of Jane, and with a duty to keep her safe from harm and report any knowledge, information, belief, or reasonable suspicion of improper conduct towards any student by any THS faculty, staff or employee.

The suit claims that these management defendants knew or should have known that Davidson displayed an unusual and improper interest in Jane and that they ignored facts or circumstances that presented at least a reasonable suspicion of improper conduct by Davidson.

Torrance High administration was also implicated in a lawsuit against the District that alleged negligent supervision due to school officials failing to act on repeated tips about the former Torrance High wresting coach who molested dozens of students. The District paid over $30 Million to settle claims stemming from that incident.

At the conclusion of a recent School Board meeting Board President Michael Wermers praised Balfour Beatty, “I want to thank Don Rondeau [Balfour Beatty Superintendent] for the work that was recently completed at Anza. It was a bit of a challenge, but I wanted to congratulate you … Balfour Beatty will make mistakes but they invariably hit homeruns, so thank you very much.”

Construction challenges created an uproar at Anza Elementary in recent weeks as children returned to school. Renovations at the school were expected to be completed over the summer. That did not happen. In a Facebook group dedicated to that school site many parents expressed their frustration with the construction delay. One parent wrote:

“Our children deserve better. I’m very disappointed by the state of the Anza campus as Balfour Beatty did not complete their work on time. Our kids will be starting Anza tomorrow having to use porta potties for the coming weeks, as the bathrooms are not ready (for grades 1-5). It is completely unacceptable that Balfour Beatty did not have an adequate crew to get the work done during the summer. The grass is nowhere near ready for play and the campus is a hazard waiting to happen with equipment, mounds of dirt/debris and who knows what else.”

Another parent commented:

Lights Left On Overnight at Anza

“Maybe they SHOULD close the campus for a month until all this is done! Although I’m sure that will not happen because of money loss. But maybe Balfour should pay for that! There are so many areas of concern, safety/health issues. The construction workers can’t be near the kids until school is out. They’ve roped off parts of the playground where the construction is happening. It’s so chaotic. I feel bad for our kids and teachers having to deal with this.”

Some complained about the job site itself with one person saying, “I picked up nails and screws on the playground today, I’m in construction and this is a [expletive] condition for a job site, especially one with kids all over the place now.”

Several also commented that it appeared not much work was happening over the summer as few workers were seen at the site. Oddly, however, despite the lack of workers lights at the school were often left on overnight and air conditioning units were left running even over hot weekends.

With bathrooms not completed, portable bathrooms with hand washing stations were brought in for student use. Complaints soon surfaced about the toilets backing up and the sinks not working as the portables only accommodated a certain amount of flushes per day. The portable bathrooms were removed after a week and a half of school and Anza is now making do by allowing the students to use the teacher bathrooms.

A representative from the architecture firm hired by the District spoke to the concerns at the District’s Quarterly Construction Update held last Monday:

Portable Bathrooms at Anza

“So yes, we had a fun summer … to your question Mr. Steffen about bathrooms. Anza has a couple of restrooms that are in the process of full modernization. We did do a limited scope during the [summer] and then are now coming back to replace the ceramic tile.”

The representative then acknowledged that replacing the ceramic tile was not part of the original plan, but no explanation was given for that omission.

A parent at Anza who corresponded with Balfour explained the omission to the original plan as follows:

Kindergarten Playground at Anza

“Related to the bathrooms, TUSD has been operating under the false assumption that the 3 Anza student bathrooms were upgraded in 2004 with the last Bond measure (hence they are just doing patchwork now) … the TUSD superintendents, Balfour and Mrs. Marks [the principal] toured the bathrooms to determine if they had or hadn’t been previously remodeled. Upon seeing them, all now agree that the bathrooms were not previously upgraded and should be now. Good news, bad news. Good news is that the three bathrooms will finally be renovated holistically rather than the current patching. Bad news is that it means construction on-site will take longer.”

Parents also discovered that only part of the school had updated lighting. It was the plan that all the lighting would be updated and it not clear why it was not done. Since the complaints surfaced, Balfour now plans to complete the lighting for the entire school.

No timeline was communicated at the Quarterly Construction Update as to when the construction as Anza would finally be completed.

School Board member Don Lee did ask at the meeting if the parents at Anza had calmed down. TUSD Superintendent Mannon responded by saying, “we held an open house there the other night and there wasn’t one question.”

A middle school student who was injured by a falling tree branch at Madrona Middle School returned to classes this week.

Earlier in the week, the District sent the following communication to parents:

We wanted to let you know that the student who was injured last week is feeling better and is back at school.

Our faculty, counselors, and administrators are always available for any student who would like to speak to someone. As always, we are dedicated to maintaining a safe, secure, and productive learning environment for our Madrona students.

In response to an inquiry of why the branch fell, TUSD Public Information Officer Tammy Khan said, “It was just a random incident.”