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Manly has hunted child predators for decades and won staggering settlements for their victims — including a record-setting $660 million settlement against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2007. He negotiated similar settlements with the Diocese of Orange ($6.9 million), the Oregon-based Society of Jesus ($50 million), and the Diocese of Wilmington (a $77 million settlement).
His firm also represented female gymnasts in the successful case against Michigan State University and U.S. Olympics team doctor Larry Nassar. He represented 234 plaintiffs in the case against former USC gynecologist George Tyndall.
In California’s K–12 schools, Manly sees all the conditions for multimillion-dollar sexual-assault settlements — the sanctioned secrecy, the protection of powerful unions, and the presence of vulnerable kids.
Standing in opposition to the suddenly popular, grassroots Parental Notification Policy is the state Department of Education’s "guidance" that school officials, including teachers, must hide students’ gender orientation from their own parents when requested.
That sort of secrecy has created “a horror show,” Manly says. “I’ve handled hundreds of public-school cases, and in the majority of those, perpetrators of molestation told their victims, ‘This is our secret. Don’t tell your parents. Don’t tell adults. Don’t tell anybody.’”
If you doubt him, Manly asks that you recall the story of Mark Berndt, the Los Angeles elementary-school teacher who molested at least 71 third-graders over several decades, cresting in a campaign of assault between 2009 and 2011.
When confronted with the evidence against him, Berndt, then 61, refused to resign; he knew that his teachers’-union contract made it nearly impossible to fire a teacher, even one convicted of serious felonies involving students. Berndt ultimately agreed to quit but only after squeezing Los Angeles Unified School District officials for a $40,000 payoff. When Berndt learned that felony convictions might imperil his pension, the United Teachers Los Angeles contract saved him again. Berndt would continue to earn about $4,000 per month (plus cost-of-living adjustments) while serving his 25-year sentence.
At trial, Manly showed that LAUSD officials knew that Berndt was trouble years before but did nothing. Their nonchalance cost the district $139 million to settle legal claims with 69 parents and 81 students.
Manly can tick off a list of similarly horrific California cases that involved secrecy between teachers and students. There was the Redlands Unified School District high-school teacher who seduced a 16-year-old boy. The district settled the family’s claim for $6 million in 2016. In 2018, the same district paid $15.7 million to settle three other sex-abuse lawsuits involving eight children.
In May 2018, nearby Torrance Unified School District paid $31 million to settle the claims of eight former students who said they were molested by their wrestling coach. That same month, the Corona-Norco Unified School District paid $3 million to a special-education student raped by a teacher’s aide for two years beginning when the student was just eleven.
The catalogue of abuse goes on and on: Irvine’s University High, Sacramento’s Mark Twain Elementary, San Diego’s upscale La Jolla High School — search any California school district (Santa Barbara, Redding, California’s Central Valley), and you’ll discover that sexual violence against children is rampant and unfolding behind a wall of official secrecy.
“The common thread [between the Catholic Church and public-school scandals] is secrecy,” Manly says. “You’re telling kids to keep sexual secrets, including gender issues, from their parents. It’s a bad idea. I’m telling you, sending that message to kids is a very, very bad idea. I can’t tell you how many more cases there will be where adults are telling children — their victims — ‘This is our secret.’”
So what would he recommend to protect kids?
“You need a policy where children aren’t told to keep secrets from their parents or other caregivers,” Manly says.
This sounds like the Parental Notification Policy now gaining purchase in local school districts — the policy California Attorney General Bonta is suing to stop.
Read the full jaw-dropping article by CPC president Will Swaim here.
And don’t miss Will Swaim’s podcast interview with attorney John Manly on this week’s episode of Radio Free California. Listen now.
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