Former Visalia high school student to receive $8 million in molestation lawsuit
A former Mt. Whitney High School student will receive an $8 million settlement after she sued the Visalia Unified School District alleging she was molested by a school staff member.
The plaintiff, who was a 15-year-old sophomore at the time, alleges that during 2022-2023 school year she was groomed and sexually assaulted by Dejaun Jones, a former campus supervisor.
Jones was arrested by Visalia police April 20, 2023 and charged with 11 felony counts of sex-related crimes, including sexual assault, showing pornography to a minor, and lewd act upon a child. He is expected to return to court Nov. 13 for a preliminary hearing.
The alleged victim, now 17, sued the school district and Jones for personal injury and damages arising from the accusations of abuse.
In the lawsuit, the school district is faulted for negligent hiring, lack of supervision of an unfit employee and failure to report suspected child abuse.
The settlement was reached one month before the civil trial was expected to start.
Two stints working at Visalia high school
Attorney Brendan Gilbert, with Taylor Ring of Los Angeles, called the 40-year-old Jones a “textbook predator” who used his positions as a special education aid and campus supervisor who had knowledge of weight training to groom victims.
Gilbert said Jones previously worked for the high school in 2013 as the girls track and field coach. But he was let go after accusations surfaced that he was sending inappropriate messages to members of the team.
Nearly a decade later Jones applied to return to the high school as a campus supervisor and was hired, Gilbert said.
“So the district did everything right back in 2013 when they released him, but then they did everything wrong when they brought him back in 2022,” Gilbert said.
In the lawsuit, Jones is accused of using the same scheme of offering to help athletes strengthen their bodies through weight training.
“He would weight train them and he would have them send photographs of their body, before and after,” Gilbert said. “But really, he just wanted to have inappropriate pictures sent to him. So he, I mean, he truly hit the ground running in 2022 and did the same exact thing targeting various female athletes in different sports.”
Additional accusations by students
The alleged victim met Jones during her sophomore year. He approached her, like he did with the others, with an offer to make her a better athlete with weight training. Soon, Jones started to engage in inappropriate conversations with the alleged victim, asking her what type of underwear she wore. It quickly escalated to touching and private meetings in his office.
“It was at this point that Jones’s grooming of Plaintiff achieved its singular purpose: He began having inappropriate relations with her,” according to the lawsuit.
At least six different female students at Mt. Whitney High School have accused Jones of inappropriate behavior during the 2022-2023 school year. Gilbert said his firm is representing a second victim whose case is ongoing.
“As a campus supervisor, Jones had access to lots of different students,” Gilbert said. “He could pull them out of class, and could, you know, talk to him on campus, drive around in his golf cart. And so it wasn’t even just limited to female athletes.”
Jones’s attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday.
