Danville Students Warned SRVUSD About Moseby Behavior: Report

DANVILLE, CA — A Mercury News report alleges that the San Ramon Valley Unified School District failed to respond to parent and student complaints regarding Nicholas Moseby, the former biology teacher and cheerleading coach who is now in jail facing charges of lewd acts upon a minor, child molestation, and sending a lewd video to a minor. Five accusers have come forward. Moseby has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Despite at least three complaints alleging inappropriate behavior at San Ramon Valley High School, the district did nothing and quietly transferred Moseby to Diablo Vista Middle School, according to a Mercury News review of two dozen pages of school documents, court records, and interviews with the accusers’ parents and attorneys.

One girl reported that Moseby whispered, “You’re lucky you guys are hot,” to her and a friend in October 2021 and followed them down the hall, when they were freshmen at SRVHS. District records show that the administration took a week to follow up with an internal investigation. No action was taken until Moseby was transferred to Diablo Vista after the spring 2022 semester.

“San Ramon Valley administrators knew about inappropriate sexual abuse in the classroom because female students made several written complaints against him,” victims’ attorney Jason Runckel told The Mercury News. “The San Ramon Valley High School administrators ignored the complaints.”

The district told Patch that it has no additional comments on the matter, and is reviewing its procedures.

“In light of the fact that this is a legal matter, we have no additional comments other than to confirm that from this situation, the District has taken steps to review both hiring and backgrounding practices, and we are implementing a review of policies and practices for conducting investigations with all members of our administrative team,” said Tammy Herley, SRVUSD coordinator of communications and public information.

The district made a similar statement after reports surfaced that Moseby was involved in at least three criminal prosecutions before he was hired at SRVUSD in 2020 following three prosecutions:

• In 2009, he was charged with providing alcohol to a teen. A judge later issued a warrant for failure to submit to court-ordered fingerprinting.
• In 2010, he was charged with public intoxication. A judge issued a warrant for failing to arrive at an arraignment hearing.
• In 2015, he was arrested in a prostitution sting. Police say he answered a prostitution ad, showing up to a hotel, and agreeing to pay $120.

Superintendent John Malloy said in a written statement that at the time of Moseby’s hiring, none of the arrests appeared in the DOJ report, and were not flagged when he applied to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Malloy said that Moseby did disclose that he pleaded guilty to serving alcohol to a minor, but said that records showed that this charge was dismissed.

“It is concerning that reference checks and the required reports from our justice system and the commission for teacher credentialing raised no flags,” Malloy wrote. “We are now reviewing every aspect of our own hiring practices to add additional layers of backgrounding which may not be required by law, but in my opinion, are an absolute must in order to be certain that something like this never happens again.”