Woodland Schools Unknowingly Hired Teacher At Center Of Abuse Suit In Another District

WOODLAND (CBS13) — The Woodland Joint Unified School District is reviewing its hiring practices after finding out a substitute teacher was at the center of abuse allegations in another school district.

The district says Abdol Hossein Mehrdadi was hired nearly three years ago, but they released from his substitute teaching role in June after learning he was at the center of a $4 million civil suit.

The 2012 suit stemmed from allegations he molested an 11-year-old and a 15-year-old at a Sacramento middle school. Mehrdadi has maintained his innocence.

Linda Moderow revisited painful memories as she explained the rocky road her fifth-grade daughter experienced with her P.E teacher at Beamer Park Elementary School.

"My daughter would just be crying after school because of him and the way he harassed her," she said. "When he'd put his hand on her back that at one time I told him, you don't even need to touch my kids."

Superintendent Maria Armstrong says background checks focus primarily on Department of Justice fingerprints and a valid teaching credential. Neither came back with any legal red flags.

"I think that we could provide more oversight in making sure that these steps and adding maybe a two-step process on reference checking," she said.

But for Moderow, a stricter legal stance is needed.

"He shouldn't have been able to settle and continue on in employment especially in a position where it involves children. That law needs to change," she said.

While the district says it's not aware of any other complaints against Mehrdadi, Moderow says his departure still brings little comfort.

"There is nothing stopping him really from going to another school district somewhere else and this happening again," she said.

The school district will be holding an informational meeting at 6 p.m. on July 20 at Beamer Park Elementary School, located at 525 Beamer St.