Kathy Cannarozzi-Harris and her husband Jim Harris have been accused of sexually abusing female students at the school.
Despite the pattern of complaints, it is stated that Harris continued to have access to teens through his role as a district substitute teacher.
Moreover, he had more access as his wife is a well-known figure in Orange County theatre circles.
Svusd: Kathy Cannarozzi-Harris And Jim Harris
Kathy Cannarozzi-Harris and Jim Harris are a couple living near Mission Viejo High School. Kathy is a drama teacher there in the school.
There has been a series of complaints going on against Jim Harris. It is said that he has, in the past, sexually harassed a few students.
The complaints about the husband of the drama teacher and his treatment of female students lasted more than 20 years.
A lady notified school officials in early 2001 that Jm Harris had sexually abused her when she was a student. Furthermore, the woman’s father complained about Jim almost five years earlier.
Mission Viejo School Drama Teacher Sexual Assault
Another former student of Mission Veijo School reported that Harris groped her, massaged her back under her shirt, and put pictures of her and another former student in swimsuits.
In the year 2005, Jim lost his job as a substitute teacher. When the two women contacted the school later and were informed about the incident with them, he then lost his substitute teaching permit.
However, he continued to interact with Mission Viejo students. He worked closely with his wife, Kathy Cannarozzi-Harris, on the school’s vaunted theatre productions.
Moreover, he continued to work there even after the parents complained in 2016 that he was photographing girls in a dressing room.
Drama Teacher: Grooming Allegations
The teacher and her husband have been reported to have groomed several female students at Mission Viejo High School. Generation of these has been recently culminated in lawsuits by the two former students who first reported his behavior in 2001.
In an interview with The Times, they portrayed the lawsuit as a last-ditch effort to get the Saddleback Valley Unified School District to listen to their concerns and prevent Harris from having contact with minors.
The lawsuit accuses Harris of grooming them by building them and welcoming them into his home. He won their trust before touching them inappropriately in the mid-1990s.
According to the lawsuit filed in the Orange County Superior Court, school and district authorities “actively turned a blind eye to several reports of misconduct.” Moreover, they failed to report Harris to management and, in fact, in one case, blamed “the student instead of the offending teachers.”