{"id":561,"date":"2026-06-04T13:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sacramentomovinghub.com\/?p=561"},"modified":"2026-06-04T13:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:30:36","slug":"i-got-access-to-hundreds-of-teacher-misconduct-complaints-in-california-and-you-can-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sacramentomovinghub.com\/?p=561","title":{"rendered":"I Got Access to Hundreds of Teacher Misconduct Complaints in California \u2014 and You Can Too"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This article was produced for ProPublica\u2019s Local Reporting Network in partnership with KQED. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. <\/em><\/p>\n

I was a new reporter at KQED in 2021 when former elementary teacher Joseph Brian Houg was sentenced to more than three decades in prison for sexually abusing 10 students. He\u2019d taught at the same San Francisco Bay Area school for more than two decades. Were there warning signs?<\/p>\n

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I soon discovered parents on social media saying they had complained to school administrators for years about Houg. I also knew that schools could release such complaints if they were substantiated or if teachers were disciplined. So I filed public records requests with Houg\u2019s school \u2014 something anyone can do.<\/p>\n

I received 43 pages of records within a few months showing that parents had reported Houg to the principal at least four times since 2009. They complained about him for asking students to strip down to their underwear in his classroom in order to try on costumes for a play he was directing, and for coming into their changing room. They also complained about his touching boys\u2019 chests or stomachs and tapping one boy on the butt. I learned that the principal had twice warned Houg to stop touching students. But he was allowed to keep teaching. (The principal said in a deposition that while Houg\u2019s actions crossed professional boundaries, they were not reported to her as sexual.)<\/p>\n

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In her five years of investigating teacher misconduct in California schools, reporter Holly McDede learned an important lesson: What seems to be secret isn’t always so \u2014 sometimes you just need to know who to ask, and for what.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-california-newsroom"],"yoast_head":"\nI Got Access to Hundreds of Teacher Misconduct Complaints in California \u2014 and You Can Too - Sacramento Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sacramentomovinghub.com\/?p=561\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Got Access to Hundreds of Teacher Misconduct Complaints in California \u2014 and You Can Too - 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