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The San Ramon Valley Unified School District and a former theater teacher at San Ramon Valley High School and Diablo Valley College are facing a lawsuit from a former SRVUSD student who alleges that she was subjected to sexual abuse and that the district had reason to know about the risk the accused teacher posed.
The case was filed in Contra Costa County Superior Court on Feb. 20 representing an anonymous “Jane Doe” plaintiff who said she experienced grooming and later sexual assault at the hands of former SRVHS theater teacher and theater director Ryan Weible starting in 2009 during her time as a student.
The complaint contains an allegation of sexual assault of a minor by Weible, as well as negligence in the hiring and supervision of Weible by SRVUSD and negligent supervision of the plaintiff by the district.
The unidentified woman alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Weible multiple times in her senior year at SRVHS in a wide range of locations, including the school’s theater and green room and Weible’s office, as well as his car and apartment and during a school trip to New York City.
Prior to that, however, she alleges that the district had reason to suspect that Weible was engaged in inappropriate behavior toward his female students as of the previous school year that other students had experienced or witnessed, including having them sit on his lap, giving them massages, and “devoting special attention to particular female students.”
The plaintiff allegedly experienced grooming behavior ahead of the alleged sexual assaults in her senior year, with Weible giving her “special attention” that included meals, gifts, and spending multiple one on one sessions with her in the theater facilities of the high school after removing her from other classes.
“While Plaintiff was isolated in Weible’s classroom and in the theatre room, Weible would sexually assault Plaintiff in various ways, including kissing, digital penetration and sexual intercourse,” attorneys for the plaintiff wrote in the complaint.
One late night meeting in the school’s theater facilities triggered the alarm system and resulted in a police response, according to attorneys.
The incidents during the school trip to New York in the student’s hotel room during the summer of 2010 eventually led to complaints with the district, which were not investigated until 2012 according to the complaint, and which were not submitted to state authorities.
In addition to teaching at SRVHS, a Contra Costa Community College District spokesperson confirmed that he was an adjunct instructor in Diablo Valley College’s theater department on and off from 2009 to 2019.
Weible began his current position as assistant head of school at the private Bentley School in 2017, which consists of a kindergarten through eighth grade campus in Oakland and a high school campus in Lafayette.
Weible and school officials did not return a request for comment or clarification on whether or not he will be continuing in his position there as of Wednesday afternoon.
SRVUSD also previously faced allegations that they had mishandled sexual harassment and abuse complaints and failed to report them to appropriate authorities in a lawsuit filed in 2015 on behalf of a former student against former California High School wrestling coach Kevin Lopez.
Lopez pled guilty to the charges, with SRVUSD and the New Life Church of Alamo – where he served as a youth group leader – settling with the victim for $699,000 and $849,000 respectively. Lopez was released in 2019 and currently lives in San Ramon, according to Megan’s Law records.
The same law firm that represented the victim in the Lopez case – Cerri, Boskovich and Allard – is also representing the plaintiff in the Feb. 20 complaint against Weible and SRVUSD.
SRVUSD officials did not respond to a request for comment on the case or information about when Weible was hired or departed the district as of Wednesday afternoon.
According to attorneys for the plaintiff, Weible would go on to groom another victim at SRVHS prior to leaving his position there in the wake of the district’s investigation into the initial complaints by their client in the current suit.
“The school decided to wait until after my client graduated before they began their investigation for whatever reason,” Robert Allard said. “I don’t understand why that is, but it gave him another opportunity to groom another young woman and that’s exactly what he did. He appeared to be on the verge of sexually assaulting her after months of grooming but suddenly in the spring he was gone.”
“Putting it together, based upon what he told my client, because he was still molesting her at the time, the school confronted him with a choice to either resign quietly or in their words they would have to document what they had found and put him through a termination process,” Allard continued.
Allard said that his firm was still deep in the investigation process and continuing to learn about the circumstances of Weible’s tenure with SRVUSD and the district’s handling of the matter, but noted that one obstacle in Weible’s case was that his position was tenured, making it all the more difficult to oust him.
“Getting someone terminated after tenure has been a pain,” Allard said. “It is virtually impossible. If I were to blame anyone for this conundrum it would include the teachers’ union. Getting someone reprimanded or terminating a teacher should not be that hard to do.”
Although Allard said that from what he understood, Weible’s departure from the district included a verbal promise not to work with children anymore, there was nothing else stopping him from going on to another job at another school.
“It’s horrifying,” Allard said. “I am horrified. The more I unearth about this guy the more of a predator he is and the more calculated and cutting he appears to be and I am mortified as to what kind of damage he caused to children for the past 10 years. “