‘I Can’t Wait Until You’re 18’: Despite Years of Sexual Harassment Allegations, San Diego Unified Allowed Teacher to Quietly Retire

Bruno Schonian’s inappropriate behavior started small. In 2007, four years after San Diego Unified School District hired him as a teacher at Roosevelt Middle, he faced discipline for speaking about personal problems with students and parents. 

By 2015, concerns about him had escalated. Documents obtained by Business Insider as part of a nationwide investigation into teacher misconduct and shared with Voice of San Diego show one middle school girl reported to school officials that Schonian grabbed her butt, while others said he’d told them they had “nice boobs,” and gazed at them with a “sexual stare.” 

Aside from a warning, nothing much came from those allegations. Still, it seems clear administrators were worried about his behavior because then-Vice Principal Karina Reyes wrote that administrators did make one change to his job.  

“The following year 2015-2016, we made a change to Mr. Schonian’s teaching assignment to have him working with younger 6th and 7th grade students, partly because we did not want him working with more mature 8th grade girls,” Reyes wrote in a later letter to district officials. They neither removed him from the classroom nor suspended him temporarily. They just moved him a bit farther away from older girls.  

Five years later, the district launched another investigation into Schonian that produced enough evidence to substantiate allegations he had groomed a child. Though the investigation would end his career and ultimately lead to a guilty plea of misdemeanor cruelty to a child, district leaders did not fire him. Instead, they allowed him to retire. Despite the guilty plea, Schonian continues to insist he is innocent. 

Schonian’s story is a reminder that despite the danger for students, discipline processes for teachers move at a glacial pace. Removing educators even for serious misconduct is extremely difficult. Districts often allow complaints to pile up before taking action against teachers who demonstrate inappropriate behavior, even when the signs have been there for years. And even when they do, because of the status quo of retirement or resignation agreements that are kept quiet, it falls on state agencies ill equipped to act quickly to keep those teachers out of the classroom in the future. 

In this case, both institutions seem to have failed to hold Schonian fully accountable. So, it fell on the courts.  

‘I Have Never Felt So Scared to Talk to a Teacher’ 

The first indication of Schonian’s pattern of inappropriate behavior seemed innocent enough. In 2007, four years after San Diego Unified hired him as a math teacher at Roosevelt Middle, then-Vice Principal Tracee Parsons met with Schonian to discuss his interactions with students and families. 

“Personal information about your family and problems [is] shared with the students during class time. This information is also shared with parents when they call with concerns about the math class,” a brief summary of the conference reads. The infraction didn’t lead to any recorded discipline, and for eight years Schonian’s behavior didn’t prompt any additional complaints. 

In 2015, however, officials at Roosevelt Middle received more concerning reports.  

The first girl came forward in March of that year. She wrote in a statement that during one incident, she approached Schonian’s desk and he stared at her chest. She reported Schonian told her she had something on her shirt and the girl said her mother had stained it. Schonian purportedly responded, “I thought you were playing with your boobies.” The girl also wrote that Schonian asked where she lived and offered to give her a ride to Saturday school whenever she needed. 

Following that incident, two more girls complained about Schonian. Both girls said he had asked them if their mothers were single and had made them uncomfortable for months and that they’d been “wanting (to) report this but we didn’t want to start any problems.” 

One of the students said he would call girls to his desk and then say, “nevermind.” Then, as they walked back to their desks, he’d gaze at their bodies. In a statement, one of the girls wrote Schonian had told her that he “liked her body shape,” and had “nice boobs.” The harassment reported wasn’t just verbal. The same girl said that while trying to pull on her bag, he grabbed her butt, which she “didn’t like.” 

“He talks to us so sexual and it really bothers me. He looks at us with this sexual look that just scares me really bad. I have never felt [this] scared to talk to a teacher,” the girl wrote. 

Not much came from these incidents. In a summary of a conference with Schonian, Reyes, Roosevelt’s Vice Principal, advised him to maintain a professional tone and “protect yourself [by] never being alone with female students.” 

“You do have good rapport with your students, but also should explain in a positive way that ‘we need to stay focused on academics’ when discussions get personal,” Reyes wrote. “Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to support you,” she wrote. 

Even given the lack of discipline, Reyes later wrote that the school had moved Schonian to sixth and seventh grade classes to keep him away from “more mature 8th grade girls,” after this incident. 

Schonian denied the allegations and even wrote a response to Reyes’ summary of the conference. He would continue to challenge reports against him in the years to come. In his response, Schonian wrote that it was odd the students had reported the incident to a library worker rather than an administrator and that no parents had called about the claims. 

“I do recommend that they be counseled so as not to have students do this to a teacher in the future … I hope they were not groomed to write those complaints,” Schonian wrote. 

In his response, Schonian also wrote “one student has stepped up and has apologized and that speaks volumes about her integrity. She is working [on] getting her grades up to a passing grade. The other has not changed her behavior and has not taken the steps to raise her grades in order to pass the class.” 

‘I Am Noticing a Pattern’ 

Less than two years later, in January of 2017, Roosevelt’s administration issued Schonian another warning. Much of the written warning issued by then-Principal Christina Casillas is redacted, but this time the complaint seems to have come from coworkers rather than students.  

“I am noticing a pattern of unprofessional conduct as it relates to sexual harassment comments and actions that create an uncomfortable and hostile environment with females. These actions are considered sexual harassment,” Casillas wrote.  

“Your actions create a negative impact on other employees and their regular routines/schedules. The two employees that reported the two separate incident[s] felt uncomfortable in the workplace,” she wrote. 

In her written warning, Casillas advised Schonian to avoid physical contact with others, maintain professionalism when interacting with parents, teachers and students and refrain from making sexually charged comments. Aside from that, no other action seems to have been taken.  

Once again, Schonian wrote a response, railing against what he described as a pattern “set up to defile my character.” Schonian took offense that Reyes didn’t require the students who accused him of harassment two years earlier to write him letters of apology as he’d requested. Reyes told him they’re not legally required to do so, according to his response. 

“The outcome is that there are two disgruntled students who used the system to get their way to demean and vilify my character and that administration created a vehicle for it,” Schonian wrote.  

But reports continued to pile up. In January of 2018, Reyes sent Schonian a reprimand letter that spelled out “continued unprofessional conduct of sexual harassment comments that is creating a hostile work environment.” 

In the letter, Reyes wrote Schonian had made “female members,” feel uncomfortable. “All of your advances were unwarranted and unsolicited,” she wrote. Reyes directed Schonian to not make comments about “body types” that could be perceived as sexual. The language about “body types,” mimics what students reported he’d told them years earlier. Reyes also echoed the directives from the principal’s earlier letter. 

In each incident, Schonian had denied he’d engaged in harassment, Reyes noted. 

By May of 2018, Reyes seemed to have had enough. In a letter whose recipient is not included, Reyes wrote that she was “deeply concerned,” with Schonian’s behavior and that it was likely to continue to “negatively impact” both students and staff. She wrote that his behavior had already affected everything from staff morale to social gatherings to meetings for students’ individualized education plans, guides parents and schools collaborate on to ensure students with special needs get the support they require. She also noted that one of the students from the 2015 incident herself had an IEP. 

“Upon reflection, what concerns me the most about that [2015] incident was Mr. Schonian’s absolute refusal to take any responsibility for making the girls uncomfortable,” Reyes wrote.  

“There is substantial documentation, including informally noted incidents, that demonstrate that incidents are very likely to happen again. I believe that this pattern of behavior should be addressed decisively by our Human Resources department and needs to stop,” Reyes wrote. 

District officials do not seem to have responded to Reyes’ plea for help. Schonian would remain in the classroom for another year. 

‘My Heart is Really Heavy’ 

Years later, Schonian still denies the claims. When I spoke to him on the phone, he sounded haunted by the accusations, like someone who felt he’d been unfairly worked over but had thought he’d been able to leave the allegations in the past.  

“My heart is really heavy,” he said. 

Schonian said he’d always tried to approach students with humor and kindness –  qualities he felt many teachers lacked. That’s why, he said, even years after leaving Roosevelt, he’d had students return to visit him.  

“I had a fairly good run of 28 years of teaching and then all of a sudden, this happens in the last few years of my profession,” Schonian said. “It’s perplexing.” 

In his telling of the 2015 incident, which took place in a journalism class, the students who’d made the complaint had fallen behind. What they really wanted was to get out of the class, Schonian said. 

“They thought that maybe would be a good way to go, with creating this theme of me grabbing their butts and commenting on their bodies, which I never did,” Schonian said. “That was the first serious allegation and it was a shocker.” 

Schonian felt so confident in his innocence that he asked Roosevelt officials to call Child Protective Services to initiate an investigation. That’s what he would want the school to do if it had been his daughter who reported the behavior, he said. Roosevelt officials don’t seem to have ultimately taken that step.  

Schonian claimed that because this class took place in a small bungalow, it would be impossible for him to get away with what was alleged without every student seeing. But, he said, not all the students in the class unanimously accused him of inappropriate behavior. He pointed to a statement taken from one of his students during the 2015 investigation as proof. 

“I don’t see him look at any girls in the class in any ‘creepy’ way … I don’t see him do anything or say anything that would make me feel uncomfortable in any way,” the student wrote. “I know some girls just don’t like him but I have nothing against him.” 

Schonian also denied telling a girl she had nice boobs and said it was actually a student who’d repeatedly brought up her mother’s dating life.  

“Those are things that happen in the class. A lot of people don’t understand the things that children and kids say in the classroom can be inappropriate,” he said. 

Still, despite his assertion that he was innocent, Schonian said he felt trapped.  

“What does a person do when three people accuse and then there’s people that said that didn’t happen?” he asked. 

‘I Can’t Wait Until You’re 18’ 

In May of 2019, Roosevelt administrators received a complaint that would finally end Schonian’s career and lead to an eventual guilty plea of misdemeanor cruelty to a child.  

On May 1, 2019, a former student of Schonian’s reported that he’d approached her after school the previous day, according to an investigation by Casillas, Roosevelt’s principal. Schonian and the girl initially spoke about school-related matters like grades and the eighth grader’s upcoming middle school promotion. 

But after a brief silence, Schonian asked the girl if she still lived near him, according to the girl’s report. He then asked if she’d like to go to the mall or get Mexican food with him sometime, to which she said, “yeah.” She felt pressured to do so, according to other investigative documents. 

“I can’t wait until you’re 18,” Schonian allegedly said. “Four years is a long time. And you can do whatever you want. Are you allowed to go out alone or do you always need someone there like an adult?” 

The girl said she was allowed go out with friends without her parents, so Schonian suggested Plaza Bonita, a mall in National City.  

“We should meet up there. We can stay at the [mall] and walk [around] or go somewhere else,” he told the girl, according to the report. 

Schonian then asked the girl how good her memory was and if she had payphones near her, before giving the girl his cell phone number and telling her to memorize it or write it down in her journal. 

“Call me on a payphone because I don’t want mobile evidence,” Schonian told her. He also said she could talk to him in person or leave a note on his car and checked to make sure she knew what color it was. 

“It would be a shame if you’d tell someone then I would get fired and jail time and I have two kids and I don’t want that to happen,” Schonian told the eighth grader. “I don’t know why but I feel more relaxed when I’m around you.” 

The pair exchanged niceties and Schonian encouraged her to visit his class more. The girl said she’d try. 

“Okay bye mija,” the girl recalled Schonian saying as he left.  

Later that night, the girl recounted the conversation to a friend over a text. The girl’s bus was late and Schonian approached her after school and told her he wanted to hang out with her alone outside of school, she told her friend, according to a transcript of the texts included in the report. 

“[On the] outside I was like (Emoji) omg yeah but inside I was like (Emoji) I’m going to get raped. Y que he said he feels very relaxed around me. Y que it just has to be us and no one else. And that he said you can get dropped off at Plaza Bonita and we can go [wherever,]” the girl texted her friend.  

“Scary,” her friend responded. 

The girl continued to text her friend, writing that he’d offered her a ride home and that Schonian had told her “4 years is a long time. Bc when you’re 18 you can do whatever the fuck you want. Pero he was like I think it’s time and I was like for what?” 

“For whatt,” the friend responded. 

“I don’t know what he didn’t answer,” the girl texted back. 

The friend told her she should have said no, but the girl responded “I didn’t say anything. We’re not gonna go out.”  

“That’s creepy,” her friend responded. 

“Very,” the girl replied.  

In a subsequent interview with both girls on May 2, they didn’t deviate from the original story. They also added new details, like Schonian offering to give them rides on other occasions, giving them dating advice and speaking to them about his divorce. On one occasion they said Schonian had told one of the girls “you’re too pretty to be talking to ugly boys.” 

Later that day, Casillas interviewed Schonian. He denied the majority of the allegations but acknowledged he had spoken to the girl after school. He also admitted to inviting her to the mall but said that he was “talking about celebrating with her family.” The girl denied that assertion. 

In the interview, Casillas told Schonian, “She has your phone number. Why would she have your phone number?” 

“She shouldn’t have it. It’s inappropriate. I don’t know why she should have it,” Schonian responded. 

Later documents show that the girl was able to recite the majority of the digits in Schonian’s phone number. After consulting with human resources, Casillas placed Schonian on paid administrative leave that afternoon. 

Schonian has an explanation for what happened. The girl in question had been an exceptional student, who was very kind to her classmates, he said. She’d bring all the other students pan dulce from Tijuana. When it came time for 8th grade promotion, Schonian said that he’d only wanted to celebrate her. In Schonian’s telling he was suggesting some kind of celebration at the mall with her and her other family members. 

During the school’s investigation Casillas asked him about it.  

“It was intended for her family,” Schonian told Casillas. “I was talking about celebrating with her family and I said, ‘Let’s go to the ma..’” Schonian seemingly trailed off before finishing the sentence.  

‘Enough Evidence to Pursue Discipline for Grooming a Female Student’ 

After the latest complaint, things began to move much quicker. 

In early June of 2019, the district’s Human Resources Division sent Schonian a notice of unprofessional conduct. It noted that he’d “demonstrated a pattern of unprofessional conduct over a consistent period of time that has been documented and discussed with you.”  

“Your unprofessional conduct has had a profound negative impact on the school site community,” the letter from Human Resources Officer Stephanie Kennedy read.  

Less than a week later, on June 10, Casillas sent Schonian a letter informing him of her recommendation he be suspended. In the letter, she outlined the years of complaints against him and the multiple opportunities staff had given him to correct his inappropriate behavior. 

“Despite these conversations and supports offered, you continue to demonstrate insubordination. It is for these reasons that I am recommending your suspension without pay for fifteen (15) days due to a pervasive pattern of your immoral conduct that is borderline sexual harassment,” Casillas wrote.  

Just eight days after the suspension letter, Schonian and San Diego Unified reached an agreement that allowed Schonian to retire.  

Retirement or resignation agreements are a go-to move for school districts. Again and again, even in instances of serious allegations, districts turn to resignation or retirement agreements to spare them the headache of actually firing a teacher, which can be a costly and drawn-out process that leaves them vulnerable to litigation. 

But even though such agreements get teachers accused of misconduct out of the classroom for the time being, they don’t always keep those teachers out of the classroom for good. That’s because the agreements, at least temporarily, keep the allegations out of the public eye. In Schonian’s case, the agreement barred him from ever again working at San Diego Unified again. It also barred the district from sharing anything other than his “dates of employment, school site worked and when, and other positions with the district,” with potential future employers.  

In other words, district leaders agreed not to share any details of their findings against him with other districts that might want to hire him.  

In an email, Maureen Magee, San Diego Unified’s communications director wrote that the district did not comment on personnel matters. “The safety and well-being of all students is the district’s top priority. Any allegations of misconduct received by the district are taken very seriously,” Magee wrote. 

After his retirement, Schonian’s teaching credentials remained valid. Not only was he free to work in other districts, but because of the agreement, those districts would potentially have no idea of the pattern of behavior documented at San Diego Unified. In July, San Diego Unified reported Schonian’s change of employment status to California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the agency that oversees teaching licenses. Notifying the agency is a required step when a teacher’s employment status changes due to “allegations of misconduct.” In a cover letter, Kennedy, the Human Resources Officer, wrote the district wasn’t able to substantiate other allegations of misconduct, which are redacted in the letter. But, Kennedy wrote, a “thorough investigation,” by the site’s principal “provided enough evidence to pursue discipline for grooming a female student.”  

That same month, the CTC sent a brief response saying they’d received the letter. But it wasn’t until February of 2020 that the agency notified the district it was reviewing the complaint. Then everything went quiet. CTC officials would take no action for nearly two years. Schonian’s credential remained valid the entire time.  

When agency officials finally did revoke his credential, they only did so because San Diego prosecutors forced their hand.  

Willfully Causing Mental Suffering To A Child 

In the months that followed his retirement agreement, it became clear that Schonian’s teaching credential wasn’t the only thing at risk. In August of 2019, San Diego’s Superior Court issued an arrest warrant for Schonian based on the information provided by his accusers.  

Amid the outbreak of Covid, the case would stall for the next year, as Schonian’s lawyer and prosecutors sparred over things like whether he needed to relinquish a collection of antique rifles. During that period, Schonian moved to Arizona. Eventually, however, prosecutors charged Schonian with two misdemeanor counts.

Only after the charges did California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing invalidate Schonian’s credentials. Even then, the agency only suspended him as is required by the state’s Education Code when a teacher is charged with certain crimes. The suspension came in October of 2021 more than two years after San Diego Unified officials initially informed the agency they’d substantiated allegations that Schonian groomed a middle schooler.  

In November of 2021, Schonian pled guilty to one of the misdemeanor counts, admitting to willfully causing mental suffering to a child. As part of the plea deal, Schonian served 52 weeks of individual counseling on “sex topics,” and was barred from working or volunteering with minors. The month after Schonian’s guilty plea, the CTC sent Schonian a letter notifying him that because of his conviction, all of his credentials had been revoked. It’s unclear if the agency ever conducted a proper investigation into the allegations. 

But despite the guilty plea, Schonian denies that he tried to meet up with a student. He insists he was railroaded both by the district and the legal system. Requesting a plea deal was a financial decision, he said, not an admission of guilt. Schonian said he’d wanted to have his day in court, but the legal process dragged on so long that he’d run out of money.  

“A lot of things that were said did not really happen. I did not say those things,” Schonian said. Taking the plea deal, he said, “was the biggest mistake of my life. I should have kept fighting.”  

“Everybody in prison will say that they’re innocent. That’s just human nature,” Schonian said. “But as you know, there’s people that have served decades in prison that were found innocent later.”