A jury in San Jose on Monday convicted a former elementary school principal for failing to written report a case of suspected sex activity abuse by a teacher to authoritie­s, marker a rare instance in which prosecutors brought misdemeanor charges under the land's mandated-reporting law.

Following 2 days of jury deliberations, Santa Clara Canton Superior Courtroom Gauge Deborah Ryan immediately sentenced Lyn Vijayendran, 36, to two years of probation and 100 hours of customs service, most likely training educators to comply with the land's police force on reporting. She could accept been sentenced to up to half-dozen months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The instance marked the commencement conviction and just the second example of prosecution in the county nether the law, co-ordinate to the Mercury News, which covered the trial. Prosecution is thought to exist equally rare statewide. The constabulary lists 40 categories of those in charge of children – teachers, day care workers, physicians, firefighters – who are required to report suspected child abuse to police enforcement.

Craig Chandler (San Jose Police Dept. photo)

Craig Chandler (San Jose Police Dept. photo)

Vijayendran failed to human activity subsequently an eight-year-old student and her mother went to her in October 2022 about a agonizing incident involving her instructor, Craig Chandler, at O.B. Whaley Elementary in the Evergreen Schoolhouse District. Though blindfolded during the incident, the girl provided enough graphic detail to betoken that Chandler had committed a lewd human action.

Vijayendran did go to the district'due south director of homo resources, who told her to interview the teacher. He dismissed the business organisation.

Three months later, after Chandler abused another daughter in the same fashion, he was arrested. He has been charged with lascivious conduct on five children and is awaiting trial.

Schoolhouse districts are required to train their personnel in the mandatory reporting law, but neither Vijayendran nor the human resources manager had received training.

Paul Matiasic, an chaser for one of the victims who is suing Vijayendran, Chandler and Evergreen School District, said that the district committed a "glaring omission not to take trained teachers to comply with the laws."

"Teachers should be trained in same style equally basic first aid, with what signs to expect for and the  duty of mandatory reporting," he said.

Vijayendran, who has been reassigned to duties in the central office, was given "an egregious fact blueprint" nevertheless failed to printing Chandler for details. Teachers should not be doing their own investigations, Matiasic said.

According to the Mercury News, in sentencing her, Gauge Ryan said, "I agree with the jury'due south verdict. You did what yous thought was right … only I do remember you fabricated a very bad judgment that day."

To get more reports similar this one, click hither to sign upwards for EdSource's no-cost daily electronic mail on latest developments in education.