Two former Redlands Unified students have filed separate lawsuits alleging they were sexually abused by an athletic trainer and a cross-country coach at different high schools.
Both lawsuits were filed in San Bernardino Superior Court on July 25 by the same law firm that has represented several dozen victims of sexually abusive teachers and staff members in Redlands Unified over at least two decades.
In one lawsuit, a former Citrus Valley High School student identified as “John RBT Doe” alleges he was sexually abused in 2010 and 2011 by athletic trainer Melissa Jaques, who used the surname of Wuest at the time. In the second lawsuit, a former Redlands East Valley High School student identified as “Jane RHA Doe” claims she was sexually abused by volunteer cross-country coach Joshua Estrada from 2010 through 2013.
Both students were 15 years old at the time the alleged sexual abuse began. Wuest was in her late 20s and Estrada was 20 at the time the alleged sexual abuse began. Both no longer work at Redlands Unified.
Estrada, now a cross-country coach and kinesiology professor at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, and Jaques, now an athletic trainer at Hesperia High School, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday, Aug. 12.
Estrada, 33, was a volunteer walk-on coach at Redlands East Valley High from August 2011 to September 2011, and Wuest, 42, was an athletic trainer at Citrus Valley High from August 2009 to December 2010, and also worked as a special education teacher at the high school from February to December 2010, according to district spokesperson Christine Stephens.
In a statement Tuesday, Stephens said the district takes all allegations of sexual misconduct very seriously.
“In every instance where concerns are raised involving a student, the District follows state law, Board policy, and established reporting procedures, which include immediate notification to law enforcement and full cooperation with their investigations,” Stephens said.
Her statement did not address whether the district was aware of the alleged incidents at the time, and, if so, whether officials contacted police. The district also did not comment on the circumstances regarding the departures of Estrada and Wuest.
“Due to student privacy protections and personnel confidentiality laws, the District cannot comment on specific allegations, investigative details, or the circumstances of an individual employee’s departure,” Stephens said.
Wuest and the former student, now in his late 20s, engaged in multiple sex acts, including intercourse and oral copulation, in a campus classroom, parking lots and in the vicinity of local coffee shops, the lawsuit alleges. Wuest also engaged in sexual talk and innuendo with the plaintiff, both electronically and in person, the suit claims.
Attorney Morgan Stewart, a partner at the Irvine law firm Manly, Stewart & Finaldi who is representing both former students, said Estrada had sex with his client on multiple occasions over the three-year period — both on and off campus, and even on the school’s track field during nonschool hours, when the two thought no one would see them.
Stewart said Estrada “extensively groomed” his client both verbally and via text messaging, and also gave her small gifts, such as a cupcake to mark her 15th birthday.
Both lawsuits allege that even though district officials knew about the allegations involving Wuest and Estrada, the “defendants negligently and/or willfully refused to, and/or did not, act effectively to stop the sexual assaults” to protect the plaintiffs from the results of that trauma.
The alleged incidents detailed in the recently filed lawsuits preceded an explosive sex abuse scandal at the district that began in 2013 with the arrest and subsequent conviction of former Citrus Valley High School teacher Laura Whitehurst, who preyed on and sexually abused students at both Redlands and Citrus Valley high schools. She bore the child of one of her students.
A yearlong investigation by the Southern California News Group exposed a more than decade-long pattern at Redlands Unified of administrators failing to report to police or children’s services teachers who had a proclivity for grooming and sexually abusing students, including Whitehurst and former Redlands High School teacher and golf coach Kevin Patrick Kirkland.
The Southern California News Group’s reporting prompted public outcry leading to investigations by the state attorney general’s office, the U.S. Department of Education and the San Bernardino County civil grand jury, forcing continued reforms at the district that began in 2018.
Since 2016, Redlands Unified has paid out more than $48 million to settle sex abuse lawsuits against the district and former teachers, Stewart said.
“Redlands Unified’s conduct exemplifies that it cannot and will not keep kids safe,” Stewart said Tuesday. “Redlands Unified has a history that continues to this day of covering up for sexually abusing teachers, and creating a conspiracy to protect its own reputation at the expense of the safety of students.”
