A teacher whose credential was revoked in 2013 has resigned from his position at Coastal Christian Academy, one day after a VOSD investigation detailed his history of harassment and abuse complaints during his tenure as a public school teacher in Oceanside. The superintendent of the school, who defended the teacher’s employment, has also resigned.
The private elementary school announced the departure of teacher Scott Brady and superintendent Richard Cates in an email to parents Wednesday. The school shared the email with the public on Facebook.
Cathy Dobbs, the newly appointed acting superintendent and a teacher at the school, wrote that the changes were discussed at a parent-teacher advisory committee meeting Tuesday.
On Monday, after the story was published, Cates sent an email inviting parents to meet with Brady. Cates said in the email that he was not concerned about the VOSD investigation, but with the students and parents of the school.
He cited an incident in Brady’s file from 2009 in which Brady caused physical harm to an 11-year-old student and forced a banana into the student’s mouth. The district attorney’s office declined to file criminal charges, and the district instructed Brady to refrain from using excessive force against students.
“A number of years ago Mr. Brady was involved in a situation where complaints were filed against him by parents of a student who had to be restrained by Mr. Brady,” Cates wrote in the email. “The story is too long to get into with this email, but law enforcement was involved and found no reason to file any charges at all, for any of the accusations.”
Brady had previously been accused of physically harming a student in 2006. In 2011, several of his female coworkers in the Oceanside Unified High School District told investigators Brady had sexually harassed and intimidated them.
Oceanside Unified officials were in the midst of taking steps to fire Brady, but instead struck a deal in which he agreed to resign.
Though private school teachers are not required by law to have a state teaching credential, Brady’s lack of one could have had an impact on Coastal Christian Academy. The school is currently seeking accreditation from the Association of Christian Schools International, and is scheduled for an accreditation visit in spring 2020.
Larry Lincoln, a representative from ACSI, said the association has teacher certification standards its accredited schools must meet.
“If a teacher did not have a current California or ACSI teaching credential in the spring of 2020, that would have been detected in the process of initial accreditation,” Lincoln said.