Stanley Middle School principal Nikki Chaplan has been placed on leave by the Lafayette school district while officials investigate her role in sex abuse accusations against a one-time San Ramon Valley Unified School District teacher.
Chaplan was hired in June 2022, after working in the San Ramon Valley district since 2005, most recently as an assistant principal at San Ramon Valley High School in Danville. She was also an assistant principal at Pine Valley and Iron Horse middle schools in San Ramon, according to Lafayette officials.
Lafayette School District Superintendent Brent Stephens sent an email to the district community Saturday, saying new reports raised questions about the San Ramon Valley district investigation of a teacher accused of sexual misconduct against two minors.
Stephens said an article in The Mercury News stated that reports from the district's internal investigation may be missing, and that Chaplan has knowledge of prior student allegations against the teacher before his arrest.
DanvilleSanRamon.com previously reported that Chaplan was directly involved in responding to allegations lodged against now-former SRVHS teacher Nicholas Moseby.
Moseby, a cheer coach and public school teacher in the San Ramon Valley, was arrested and charged last September with sexual abuse and lewd acts against teen girls. Records showed that Chaplan was listed as one of Moseby's professional references in his July 2021 application to SRVUSD, although their specific relationship remains unclear.
"The reporter describes Ms. Chaplan as having had knowledge of at least some of the student allegations against the teacher," Stephens wrote. "Though there is no evidence presented in the article that Ms. Chaplan misstepped in her role, the reporter raises questions about the district's overall handling of these allegations, including whether investigations were conducted adequately, whether reporting requirements were fulfilled, and whether investigations records were properly created and maintained."
Stephens wrote it's not possible to know for certain what happened.
"Still, the primary responsibility of the Lafayette School District is to provide for the safety of our students," Stephens wrote. "For this reason, I feel it necessary to conduct our own investigation into what took place during this time so that we can, as much as possible, review source documents and determine what is factually accurate. Because of the nature of these questions, during this investigation Ms. Chaplan will be placed on leave -- the standard practice in cases like this."
Stephens wrote in Chaplan's short time at Stanley, she "has already contributed thoughtfully to the Stanley community, feedback about her leadership has been positive, and our decision to look into this matter objectively should not be construed by anyone that wrongdoing has occurred."
He asked the community not to speculate and ground their thinking in evidence.
"This is a decision I do not take lightly, and I am committed both to protecting our students' wellbeing and to treating all our employees with fairness and respect. I ask the same from everyone," Stephens wrote.
Stephens said he'll share more about how administrative support at Stanley will be organized. He said the school has two experienced assistant principals, a strong faculty and office team, collaborative parent leadership, and close, ongoing support from the district office.
Editor's note: Embarcadero Media East Bay editorial director Jeremy Walsh contributed context from past DanvilleSanRamon.com reporting into this article.
Comments
Registered user
Danville
on Jan 31, 2023 at 3:22 am
Registered user
on Jan 31, 2023 at 3:22 am
There’s plenty of blame to go around in the Nicholas Moseby case (#01-22-01583, Contra Costa County), including SRVUSD’s careless hiring of him in the first place, compounded now by critical missing records.
Another question still needing answers — and a further assignment of personal culpability for SRVUSD management personnel (former and current, as appropriate) — is why Moseby was assigned to Diablo Vista MIDDLE School after verbal and written student and parent complaints about him at San Ramon Valley HIGH School.
He allegedly continued his predatory behaviors, redirected at the younger middle school girls.
A number of SRVUSD locations have been notorious schools for scandal over the years. They’d be as comically hypocritical as Sheridan’s characters, were their real-world effects not so serious.
MANY SRVUSD problems are hidden deviously from public view. The quiet ending (May 2021) of the parental permission slips originally required (January 2021) for 4th and 5th grade “PRISM Clubs” (“LGBTQ+” Clubs) comes to mind.
So does a CTA seminar discussion by two teachers (February 2021), not only of the already then planned permission-slip halt, but also of concealing PRISM Club meetings from parents — with now evident upper-management approval.
It’s a district which utilizes transgender and homosexual-themed read-aloud picture books in captive-audience classrooms of its youngest children (even its 5-year-olds, apparently), a scheme which its SRVUSD originators have characterized as “queering the classroom” ( Web Link ).
The latest scandal now being exposed is the presence of LGBTQ pornography in high school libraries, including a depraved how-to book on “gay” sex.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at the arrest of Baldwin Elementary employee Andrew Oliver Kallick in August for alleged possession of child pornography, nor Moseby’s own arrest in September for allegedly obscene grooming behavior.
Registered user
Danville
on Jan 31, 2023 at 12:31 pm
Registered user
on Jan 31, 2023 at 12:31 pm
When will school administrators stop sweeping all this under the rug? This isn't the 50s. How can records go "missing?"
Registered user
San Ramon Valley High School
on Feb 1, 2023 at 7:41 am
Registered user
on Feb 1, 2023 at 7:41 am
Malloy should be reprimanded or put on leave just for this missing report! The fact of the matter here is that Malloy has deceived and divided the community since his hiring. Malloy doesn't build this community, he keeps trying to tear it apart. His myopic frivolous crusade against racism and to promote transgenderism at the cost of everything else is out of hand. Malloy didn't care about the girls that were molested at SRV high school and certainly didn't care about any middle school girls that might have been molested. No. All he cared about was about his own perception to his cadre of progressive extremists on Twitter. Did Malloy care about the Cal High Cheer girls that he baselessly accused of racism? No of course not! So we have now a pattern of behavior where the SRVUSD Superintendent has repeatedly put GIRLS in danger in order to meet his own personal political goals.
Malloy needs to be put on leave until we as a community can be assured that he actually cares about the safety of girls in the district he oversees.
Malloy doesn't care about the safety
Registered user
Blackhawk
on Feb 1, 2023 at 8:57 am
Registered user
on Feb 1, 2023 at 8:57 am
100% agree with all three comments above. He must be removed. He is destroying this district.
Registered user
San Ramon Valley High School
on Feb 1, 2023 at 10:19 am
Registered user
on Feb 1, 2023 at 10:19 am
Also, recently hired Assistant Superintendent Stella Kemp is allegedly under investigation by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Has SRVUSD done what Lafayette did and suspended Dr. Kemp until this investigation concludes? No of course not! The fish rots from the head and Malloy’s lack of integrity has encouraged people of low moral standards and outright criminals and to find easy refuge as SRVUSD employees.
The board of education needs to act.
Registered user
Danville
on Feb 2, 2023 at 2:49 pm
Registered user
on Feb 2, 2023 at 2:49 pm
Mr. Arata, respectfully, you have been fear mongering in the name of religion any chance you can get since I was a young kid. This incident is unfortunate, but does not tie to the LGBTQ curriculum in the classroom. Your kids are grown, please move on with your hatred.
Registered user
Danville
on Feb 2, 2023 at 3:59 pm
Registered user
on Feb 2, 2023 at 3:59 pm
Religion? No, just common sense and ethical instruction. But yes, I’ve been exposing SRVUSD misfeasance and malfeasance for three decades.
Mr. Malloy became SRVUSD’s superintendent in 2020, after that spring’s two expensive settlements — freshman Ben Curry’s tragic 2018 drowning death in a SRVHS swimming class ($8 Million) and SRVHS’s/SRVUSD’s 2017 defamation of then-junior Nathaniel Yu ($665,000). See Web Link .
Malloy was presumably lurking permissively in the background as Country Club Principal Christy Glaser and teacher Korby Saunders prepared their Nov. 2020 seminar on their “experiences of queering the classroom” at the virtual (COVID-time) conference of the “National Conference of Teachers of English.”
What, you wondered what “queering the classroom” (in this case, transition kindergarten through 5th grade elementary schools) has to do with teaching English? See Web Link for more on that story.
Malloy himself tried ham-handedly to justify use of transgender and homosexually-themed read-aloud picture books for SRVUSD’s youngest children, at a school-board meeting last April, reading an inapposite section of California Education Code, section 51204.5 ( Web Link ).
I challenged Malloy’s false assertion the next day. He turned that into a public-records-act request, then never answered it — because no record legitimizes his false claim.
He apparently also supported a secretive ending of parental permission-slip requirements for 4th and 5th grade (9 to 11-year old) “PRISM Club” (“LGBTQ+” Clubs) in 2021 — and when that scheme was exposed, shifted to OPT-OUT parental permission, the wrong default for young kids.
Malloy’s defamation of Cal High’s Stunt Team last May ( Web Link ) should have ended his SRVUSD superintendency. Instead, the feckless school board extended his contract voting 5-0.
Registered user
San Ramon Valley High School
on Feb 3, 2023 at 10:39 am
Registered user
on Feb 3, 2023 at 10:39 am
This tact by folks Kim to attack the messenger instead of addressing the actual legal issues at play here is a major part of the problem.They don't want to believe it can happen here. But the fact tell a very different story.
Registered user
Danville
on Feb 3, 2023 at 3:16 pm
Registered user
on Feb 3, 2023 at 3:16 pm
And “hatred”? (i.e., another crabbed allegation from further above): The truth becomes “hatred” to those who hate the truth.
And it’s SRVUSD's LACK of truth which is at issue here, in a case which appears to involve failure on the part of SRVUSD administrators to act consistently with their roles as mandated reporters of abusive behavior directed at children.
Mr. Malloy talks frequently about “getting to a better place.” In December 15th’s School Board workshop, he said that he “would hope we can get to a place where we're having conversations candidly even if they're tough. But in order to do that, we gotta figure out how to build the trust.... Without the trust, you don't get anything.... I don't know exactly what to do with that."
The last part is certainly correct. I responded, “Since you ‘don’t know what to do with that,’ here's a clue: from [dishonestly] attempted justification for homosexual and transgender-themed read-aloud picture books for kindergarteners [with his citing of an irrelevant segment of Ed. Code], to PRISM Club transparency, to actual partnership with parents (with OPT-IN permission slips for starters), to what you falsely called the ‘Cal High Racist Incident,’ etc. etc., a necessary prerequisite for TRUST is TRUTH.”
“Truth is also a requisite travel guide,” I continued, “for ‘getting to a better place,’ another objective you mention frequently.”
I had earlier written to Malloy that “trust begins with truth — two words which derive from the same Anglo-Saxon root. You could help things along by finally telling the truth about what you falsely called the ‘Cal High Racist Incident 5.23.22’ — and now, by acting substantively to prevent your other activist administrators and your activist teachers from making young people feel that they are oppressors."
That dishonest and prejudicial behavior" I added, "is, as you say, not acceptable. So if you're not going to halt it, you should at least stop your related posturing.”