The Redwood City School District replaced a middle school math teacher, Jason Agan, for the rest of the academic year after new complaints from parents and an investigation that traced how his credentials remained active despite an earlier firing for allegatio
By the time the story reached Clifford School in Redwood City, the schedule was already shifting. A substitute teacher was brought in to teach Agan’s classes starting May 13. and the district has now replaced him for the remainder of the academic year after receiving at least two new complaints. according to parents who filed them and emails the district sent to those parents saying it was investigating.
For many parents at Clifford, the change didn’t come soon enough. More than a dozen parents showed up the morning after the story was published last week to express concern about Agan’s employment to the principal. according to two parents who were there. Just before noon that same day. Clifford Principal Kristy Jackson and Superintendent John Baker emailed the Clifford School community saying the district would be “soon be welcoming a substitute teacher to support students in Mr. Agan’s classroom.”.
The case has centered on a pattern parents say they were never clearly told to fear—and on a state system they say makes that fear difficult to act on.
Jason Agan had previously been fired from Angelo Rodriguez High School. a school in the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District. for conduct described by district officials at the time as sexual harassment of female students. KQED and ProPublica found that the state teacher licensing agency allowed Agan to keep his credentials after the 2019 firing.
At Rodriguez High. at least 11 students and one parent submitted written complaints about Agan’s behavior to school administrators. prompting at least two warnings to stop. the investigation found. During Agan’s dismissal hearing. students testified that he made them uncomfortable by massaging their neck or shoulders and commenting on female students’ clothing. An independent panel then deemed him “unfit to teach,” according to records obtained by the news outlets.
The Commission on Teacher Credentialing suspended Agan’s teaching license for seven days in 2021, after he had already gotten another job teaching math at Ephraim Williams College Prep Middle School in the Fortune network of charter schools in Sacramento—about an hour away from Rodriguez High.
While the suspension and a red flag icon appear in the state’s public database of credentialed educators, no specific reason is listed for the sanction. Anyone searching Agan’s name would see he still held credentials indicating he was legally fit to teach.
At Ephraim Williams, Agan drew another complaint of unwanted touching, prompting a written warning from Fortune’s human resources consultant. Agan left the school in June 2022, then started teaching math at Clifford School in Redwood City that August. It was there, when the investigation was published, that he was teaching.
Redwood City’s leadership says it has moved to review its own role in what parents learned only after the reporting.
In a written statement to KQED and ProPublica on Saturday. David Weekly. president of the school board in Redwood City. said the board plans to review the district’s hiring process after Clifford parents—through a public letter—called for such a review and for a third-party investigation into whether district officials were aware of prior complaints against Agan.
Superintendent John Baker told the Clifford School community on Thursday, according to a letter shared with the news outlets by the district spokesperson, that the district has enlisted a third-party investigator to review its hiring practices and procedures.
Deputy superintendent Wendy Kelly had previously told KQED and ProPublica that. when hiring. the district typically calls candidates’ immediate supervisors and checks the database of licensed educators. She declined to answer whether the district knew about accusations from two previous jobs. and she declined to say whether it was aware of Agan’s history.
Clifford principal Kristy Jackson. in an email to parents sent in the hours after the story was published. outlined the district’s hiring policies and said that while she could not discuss confidential personnel matters. “To date. I have not had any concerns about this employee related to student safety.”.
A spokesperson for the Redwood City School District said a substitute was brought in to teach Agan’s classes starting May 13, but declined to comment on his employment status. The spokesperson also did not answer a question about the new complaints.
Agans’ new removal follows an older discipline record that parents say the state system made too hard to understand quickly.
Parents say their demands went beyond immediate action in one classroom. In a letter to Clifford Principal Kristy Jackson. the school board. state lawmakers. California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond. and the teacher licensing agency. parents expressed “profound alarm and outrage” and demanded Agan’s immediate resignation or removal from any position involving contact with students. More than 170 people signed the letter, according to a parent involved in organizing the petition.
In the letter. the parents wrote: “We recognize the seriousness of these matters and believe that transparency. accountability. and student safety must take precedence over institutional reputation or liability concerns.” They added: “Children deserve learning environments where they are safe. respected. and protected. Parents and guardians deserve honesty and accountability from the institutions entrusted with their children’s care.”.
Brie Hanni, a parent who signed the letter, said she broke down after learning about Agan’s disciplinary history and pulled her seventh grade daughter, who was in Agan’s class, out of school the day KQED and ProPublica published the story.
Hanni described Agan’s case as an illustration of a “systemic gap” in transparency and said the state should specify the reasons educators are disciplined. She contrasted the teacher credentialing system with other licensing bodies in California—including doctors. nurses. police officers and lawyers—that. she said. make the reasons for discipline easier to find. She also pointed to at least 12 other states, including Oregon, Washington and Florida, that make teacher discipline reasons accessible.
Thurmond. who is running for governor. told KQED and ProPublica that any teacher who “abuses or harasses students should never teach again.” Thurmond said that. as governor. he would propose legislation to automatically revoke licenses for educators found by schools or independent panels to have committed sexual harassment. and a spokesperson for his campaign said the legislation would be retroactive.
Xavier Becerra—former U.S. health and human services secretary. former state attorney general. and a leading candidate for California governor—said in a statement delivered through his campaign spokesperson. Jonathan Underland. that he “believes California should have a system that acts swiftly. prioritizes the protection of students. and gives parents and schools confidence that serious misconduct is being handled appropriately and transparently.” Underland said: “Student safety has to come first. The allegations described in this reporting are deeply disturbing, and no student or family should ever feel unsafe at school.”.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment on Agan’s case and on the state’s disciplinary process. Neither did six other gubernatorial candidates seeking to replace Newsom.
State Sen. Josh Becker, whose district includes Redwood City, shared the investigation on social media and wrote: “Completely unacceptable. What is going on here? The legislature needs to dig into this which includes me.” A spokesperson for Becker said he was not available for comment.
On the federal level, parents also invoked Title IX, the law that prohibits sex-based discrimination and harassment in schools. During a Redwood City school board meeting last week. Clifford parent Josh Levinson said he submitted a Title IX complaint against Agan to the district after reading the article and speaking with his seventh grade son. Levinson said: “What I’ve heard from my son is that this pattern hasn’t changed. ” referring to Agan’s history of misconduct claims. and he said that when someone’s deemed “unfit to teach. ” it should be “a massive red flag. not something brushed aside because the database says they’re technically employable.” Levinson declined to speak about the specifics of his complaint.
Another Clifford parent. who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect a child’s identity. told the news outlets that the parent also filed a complaint after reading the story and speaking with a child. The parent said the child reported seeing Agan touch students’ shoulders and yell during class.
The controversy has also turned on what Agan disclosed in hiring paperwork.
In his job application to Redwood City that the district shared with KQED and ProPublica. Agan did not disclose that he had been fired from Rodriguez High. Instead. he wrote that he left because he “wanted to explore new challenges and opportunities. ” and he checked a “Please don’t contact” box under Rodriguez High.
In an earlier application to teach at Ephraim Williams. Agan acknowledged he had been fired from Rodriguez High after being “accused of inappropriately touching students on the shoulders during class.” He wrote that he disagreed with the dismissal and explained that he would often place his hands on students’ shoulders while helping them.
Kelly. the Redwood City deputy superintendent. previously told the news outlets that districts contact prior employers even when candidates instruct them not to. She also said school districts trust the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to vet teachers. and that educators whose credentials are valid are considered employable.
On the question of what state licensing records really mean. a spokesperson for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Anita Fitzhugh. said state law limits what the agency can share. Fitzhugh emphasized that only after the agency recommends educators be disciplined can it release its findings. which include a summary of the case. to prospective employers. Even then. the information is released only if a school requests it within five years of when the discipline was recommended. In Agan’s case, that window passed earlier this year.
Redwood City did not ask for such findings before hiring Agan in 2022, according to logs of requests made during that time provided to KQED and ProPublica by the teacher licensing agency. Kelly previously confirmed that the district discovered only last year that it could request the findings.
There is an additional backdrop that parents say makes Agan’s case feel like a broader failure rather than a one-off mistake: KQED and ProPublica reported that Agan is one of at least 67 educators for whom the state has not revoked professional licenses after school districts determined they had sexually harassed students or committed other misconduct of a sexual nature. based on a review of available records from 2019 through 2025.
Now. for Clifford School’s students. the district’s response has become physical and immediate—an emptied classroom routine and a substitute stepping in. For the adults around them. the story has become a demand for answers they say should have been available before anyone sat down with Agan for the school day.
United States politics California Redwood City School District Jason Agan teacher licensing Commission on Teacher Credentialing sexual harassment allegations Title IX Tony Thurmond Gavin Newsom