Calabasas School Faces Lawsuit After Shielding Inappropriate Teacher
Viewpoint School, a K-12 grade school in Calabasas, California, will potentially face a civil suit after several accusations were made against the school for helping a former employee, Joseph Koetters, land another job after he demonstrated inappropriate behavior as one of the school’s teachers.
Joseph Koetters, who was employed by Viewpoint from 1998-1999, later transferred to the Marlborough School, an all-girl institution in Los Angeles. In 2015, Koetters pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two former 16-year-old Marlborough students and subsequently served one year in jail.
The motion filed earlier this month claims that Viewpoint did not alert Marlborough about Koetters’ misconduct and inappropriate sexual behavior. The school did not make Koetters’ tendencies, which had been acknowledged, clear to Marlborough when he was seeking work. The suit also claims that Viewpoints’ withholding of information led to Koetters’ hiring at Marlborough.
“It’s outrageous to see two of LA’s elite private schools engage in a class ‘pass the trash’ scheme to rid themselves of a problem teacher,” said David Ring, lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the Marlborough suit.
The new suit does not absolve Marlborough of any wrongdoing, pointing out that the school should have vetted Koetters far more thoroughly.
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