A sex abuse scandal that rocked an affluent East Bay school district and helped lead to a new law requiring all California teachers and school employees to receive annual child abuse report training will be the focus of the CBS News show “48 Hours” on Saturday.
“Kristen’s Secret” recounts the sexual abuse suffered by Cal assistant swimming head coach Kristen Cunnane and other girls in the Moraga School District in the 1990s. Cunnane speaks candidly of the abuse by biology teacher Daniel Witters and PE teacher Julie Correa. The show also features an interview with another abuse victim, although her identity is shielded.
Cunnane’s story first came to light in 2012 in a series of stories by Bay Area News Group reporters Matthias Gafni and Malaika Fraley, who are interviewed in the show. The episode will air Saturday at 10 p.m. on CBS.
Cunnane received $2.85 million from the Moraga School District in a court settlement last year, and another woman who said she was abused received $1.8 million. In June, the district agreed to pay a total of $14 million to two additional women who sued the district over teacher sex abuse in what apparently is the nation’s largest molestation settlement per student.
Speaking for the first time publicly, one of those women described how she met Witters at age 12. She said he started abusing her the following year.
“He would tell me that I was special, and what we had was special and what we were doing was just between us,” the woman, her face obscured, told “48 Hours.”
“I just couldn’t believe that all of these people knew for so long what he was doing and just chose to do nothing,” she said.
Documents uncovered by Gafni and Fraley showed other school officials knew of the allegations against Witters, and the settlements paid by the district stemmed from its failure to investigate and report the allegations to authorities.
Witters committed suicide in 1996, days after being placed on leave from Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School. A judge sentenced Correa in December 2011 to eight years in state prison.
The story continues to have legislative impact, as well. Last month, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1432, which will require that all California teachers and school employees receive annual child abuse reporting training. The requirement begins with the 2015-16 school year.
Contact Rick Hurd at 925-945-4789 and follow him at Twitter.com/3rderh.
‘Kristen’s Secret’
Where: 48 Hours on CBS
When: Saturday, Oct. 18, 10 p.m.
Online: Go to contracostatimes.com to view transcript excerpts from an on-air interview with one abuse victim and to view a clip from the show.