Two new lawsuits filed in Gilroy teacher sexual misconduct case

UPDATE 6/22/2016 10:18 PM: Two more lawsuits has been filed against the Gilroy Unified School District, according to high profile attorney Gloria Allred.

This makes three lawsuits now against the district involving a former teacher after allegations of sexual misconduct with students at Gilroy High School.

On Wednesday, Allred announced she’s now representing two male students who allege teacher Douglas Le talked about having sex with their moms and their genital sizes. He also massaged their backs and even posed as a girl to get naked photos.

The accusations arose after Le was arrested earlier this year for inappropriately interacting with minors online.

“Our clients who are minor children were seriously harmed and impacted by Gilroy Unified School District’s failure to protect them from verbal, physical and sexual harassment by their teacher,” said Allred.

The first lawsuit was filed in May by Allred, nearly two years after a female student’s mom named Celest Benn, reported inappropriate sexual text messages from Le.

“Sadly they appeared to ignore my report and allow Mr. Le to remain as a teacher in position of authority at Gilroy High School,” said Benn.

The district said Le was punished but Allred said the officials should have done more and prevented two boys from being victimized as well.

“We allege that GUSD failed to protect and safeguard our clients from the sexual misconduct against them by Mr. Le,” said Allred.

Le has since resigned. The school district isn’t commenting on the new lawsuits, which it said it hasn’t seen yet.

“When any parent entrust a child to a school the last thing a parent would expect would be for the school district to ignore a warning that a teacher posed a danger to children,” said Benn.

Allred said she’s seeking monetary compensation for her clients. She also warned that the district should expect more lawsuits as she and her team are talking with more alleged victims.

PREVIOUS: On Wednesday, two new lawsuits were filed against the Gilroy Unified School District in a sexual misconduct case involving a former teacher, according to high profile attorney Gloria Allred.

Allred is also representing the family of a Gilroy High School student claiming the school district mishandled a 2014 complaint. The victim’s mother said her daughter was 15-years-old at the time and was getting sexual text messages from her chemistry teacher, Douglas Le.

Le was arrested during a different investigation in April and the first lawsuit was filed in May. At that time, the district said Le was reprimanded for “inappropriate language with students.”

Allred claims the district failed to protect its students from becoming victims of sexual misconduct.

KION’s Monica Jacquez will have more on this story.