The San Francisco Bay Area School District has decided to replace a middle school math teacher who was accused of inappropriate contact with students at two previous jobs in an investigation by KQED and ProPublica for the remainder of the school year.
The Redwood City School District has received at least two new complaints against Jason Agan and is investigating both, according to the parent who filed the complaint and an email from the school district to parents.
News outlets revealed that the state’s Office of Teacher Licensing allowed Agan to keep his certification after he was fired from his high school in the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District in 2019 for conduct that district officials deemed sexually harassing a female student. An investigation by KQED and ProPublica found that at least 11 students and one parent at Angelo Rodriguez High School submitted written complaints to school administrators about Agan’s conduct and issued at least two suspension warnings.
An independent panel deemed him “unfit to teach” after students in the district testified at his termination hearing that he made students uncomfortable by massaging their necks and shoulders and making comments about female students’ clothing, according to records obtained by news outlets.
The Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the agency that administers educators’ licenses, suspended Agan’s teaching license for seven days in 2021 because he had taken a second job teaching math at Ephraim Williams College Prep Middle School in the Fortune Charter School Network in Sacramento, an hour away from his first school.
The punishment is recorded in the state’s public database of certified educators with a red flag icon, but no specific reason for the sanction is given. A search for his name in the database reveals that he still holds certifications indicating that he is legally eligible to teach.
At Agan’s second school, Ephraim Williams, Agan again complained of unwanted touching and received a written warning from a Fortune human resources consultant. He left school in June 2022 and began teaching math at Clifford School, a kindergarten through eighth grade school in Redwood City, in August of the same year. He was teaching there when the findings were announced.
Redwood City School Board Chairman David Weekley told KQED and ProPublica on Saturday that the school board plans to review the district’s hiring process after Clifford’s parents asked for such a review in an open letter, as well as an independent investigation into whether district officials were aware of previous complaints against Agan.
“Parents have a right to know that their children are safe and that the school district carefully vets those who work closely with their children,” the Weekly said in a written statement to the press.
Redwood City School District Superintendent John Baker told the Clifford School Community on Thursday that the district has hired a third-party investigator to review its hiring practices and procedures, according to a letter shared with news outlets by a district spokesperson.
Deputy Superintendent Wendy Kelley previously told KQED and ProPublica that when hiring, the district typically calls a candidate’s immediate supervisor and checks a database of qualified educators. She declined to answer questions about Mr. Agan’s hiring or say whether the district was aware that he had been accused of misconduct at two previous schools.
Clifford Principal Christy Jackson emailed parents hours after this story was published outlining the district’s hiring policy, saying that while she cannot discuss sensitive personnel matters, “to date, we do not have any concerns regarding the safety of our students regarding this employee.”
Agan, who has not been charged with a crime, did not respond to requests for comment on the new complaint after he was expelled from the school. He also has not responded to questions sent to his home via email or certified mail about the students’ accusations or his work history. He denied having a sexual motive for touching the students, and said during his termination hearing from the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District that he touched the students’ shoulders to offer support and encouragement, but not to massage them.
The morning after the article was published last week, more than a dozen parents showed up at Clifford to voice their concerns about Agan’s employment to the principal, according to two parents who were there. Just before noon that same day, Ms. Jackson and Ms. Baker sent an email to the Clifford School community saying the district would “soon have a replacement teacher to support students in Mr. Agan’s classroom.”
A Redwood City School District spokeswoman said a substitute had been brought in to teach Agan’s class starting May 13, but declined to comment on his employment status. A spokesperson did not respond to questions about the new complaints.
In a letter to Principal Clifford, the school board, state legislators, California Superintendent Tony Thurmond and the Office of Teacher Licensing, the parents expressed “deep alarm and anger” and demanded that Mr. Agan immediately resign or be removed from any position involving contact with students. More than 170 people signed the letter, according to parents who helped organize the petition.
Agan began teaching at Clifford School in 2022. Beth Laberge/KQED
“We recognize the seriousness of these issues and believe that transparency, accountability, and student safety should take precedence over issues of university reputation and liability,” the parents wrote. “Children are entitled to a safe, respectful and protected learning environment. Parents and guardians are entitled to integrity and accountability from the institutions entrusted with their child’s care.”
Bree Hani, a parent who signed the letter, said she cried when she learned of Agan’s disciplinary history and had her seventh-grade daughter, who was in Agan’s class, removed from school on the day KQED and ProPublica published the story.
Hani argues that Agan’s case shows a systemic lack of transparency and that the state should clarify why educators are being disciplined.
Licensing bodies for dozens of other professions in California, including doctors, nurses, police officers and lawyers, make the reasons for disciplinary action easily accessible on their websites. And at least 12 states, including Oregon, Washington and Florida, have taken similar measures for teachers.
“I think the issue statewide, if not nationally, is what to do with teachers who are ‘unfit to teach,’” Hani said.
“Teachers who abuse and harass students should never teach again,” Thurmond, who is running for governor, told KQED and ProPublica. As governor, Thurmond said he would propose legislation that would automatically revoke the licenses of educators whose schools or independent commissions find sexual harassment. A spokesperson for his campaign said the bill would be retroactive.
Xavier Becerra, a former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, former state attorney general and leading candidate for California governor, believes California needs a system that moves quickly, prioritizes the protection of students, and gives parents and schools confidence that serious misconduct is being handled appropriately and transparently, Becerra’s campaign spokesperson Jonathan Underland said in a statement.
“Student safety must be our top priority,” Underland said. “The allegations described in this report are deeply concerning and no student or family should feel unsafe at school.”
A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom did not respond to a request for comment about Agan’s case and the state’s disciplinary process against educators. The same was true for the other six gubernatorial candidates seeking to succeed him.
State Sen. Josh Becker, who represents Redwood City, shared ProPublica and KQED’s investigation on social media, writing, “Totally unacceptable. What is going on here? The Legislature, including me, needs to thoroughly investigate this.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Becker said he was unavailable for comment this week.
At last week’s Redwood City School Board meeting, Clifford’s parent, Josh Levinson, said he filed a Title IX complaint against Agan with the district after reading the article and talking with his seventh-grade son. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination and harassment in schools.
“What I’ve heard from my son is that this pattern hasn’t changed,” Levinson told the board, referring to Agan’s history of misconduct allegations. “If someone is deemed unfit to teach, that should be a major red flag and not something to be ignored just because the database shows they are technically employable.”
Levinson declined to discuss the details of the complaint.
Another of Clifford’s parents, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their child’s identity, also told the news outlet that they filed a complaint against Agan after reading the article and speaking with their child. Parents said their children reported witnessing Agan touching students’ shoulders and yelling at them during class.
In his Redwood City job application, which the district shared with KQED and ProPublica, Agan did not disclose that he had been fired from Rodriguez High School. Instead, he wrote that he left because he “wanted to explore new challenges and opportunities.” He also checked the “Do Not Contact” box under Rodriguez High School.
Kelly, the Redwood City assistant superintendent, said in a previous interview that the district will contact former employers even if candidates instruct them not to do so. He also said the district relies on the Teacher Credentials Review Board to vet teachers, and those with valid credentials are considered employable.
In a previous application for a teaching position at Ephraim Williams, Mr. Agan acknowledged that he was fired from Rodriguez High School after being “accused of inappropriately touching a student’s shoulder during class.” He wrote that he did not agree with the dismissal and explained that he often placed his hand on students’ shoulders when helping them.
Anita Fitzhugh, a spokeswoman for the state’s Office of Teacher Licensing, emphasized that state law limits the information the agency can share. Only after the agency recommends disciplinary action against the educator can it release its findings, including a summary of the incident, to potential employers. But that information will only be released if the school requests it within five years of the discipline being recommended. In Agan’s case, that deadline passed earlier this year.
Redwood City did not request such findings until Agan was hired in 2022, according to request records provided to KQED and ProPublica by the teacher licensing agency at the time.
Mr. Kelly previously acknowledged that the school had not requested the findings, saying he only learned last year that the school could request them.
Agan is one of at least 67 educators whose professional licenses were not revoked by the state after the district found they had sexually harassed students or engaged in other types of misconduct of a sexual nature, according to a review of available records from 2019 to 2025 obtained by the news organization.
If you have experience with the state’s opaque teacher disciplinary process, KQED and ProPublica want to hear from you.
