A former teacher previously sentenced to 80 years to life in state prison on sex-related charges has been sued along with his wife and Long Beach Unified by seven plaintiffs who allege they were molested by the teacher with the help of his spouse, who taught in the same district.
Mark Anthony Santo, 54, was convicted June 5 in Long Beach Superior Court of two counts of lewd act on a child under 14 and one count each of forcible sexual penetration, forcible oral copulation, assault with intent to commit forcible oral copulation and assault with intent to commit forcible penetration—the latter two of which were vacated because they involved the same conduct as the more serious charges.
“You forced these young women to relive that behavior … the molestations, the intimate details of what you did to them,” Judge Laura Laesecke said during Santo’s Oct. 17 sentencing.
The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges sexual abuse and battery, sex trafficking, negligence, conspiracy and public entity liability for failure to perform a mandatory duty. The plaintiffs seek unspecified compensatory damages against the district and punitive damages against both Santo and his wife, Jennifer Santo.
“This action seeks to vindicate the rights of several young women who were sexually abused, molested and sexually harassed at the hands of former … teacher Mark Anthony Santo,” the suit filed Wednesday states.
An LBUSD representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The plaintiffs attended Lindbergh Middle Schools and/or Jordan High School, the suit states. Jennifer Santo, also a LBUSD teacher, “trafficked as well as aided and abetted” the sexual abuse and harassment by her husband, the suit alleges.
The LBUSD represented to the public, the plaintiffs and their families that Santos and his wife were “highly qualified teachers, educators, mentors and counselors” worthy of the public’s trust, the suit states.
The district did not take sufficient steps to make the school environment safe for the plaintiffs so they could have avoided Santo’s sexual misconduct with his wife’s assistance, the suit states.
“Instead, (the LBUSD) ignored and concealed the sexual abuse of plaintiffs and others by Mark Santo that had already occurred,” the suit states.
Among the red flags for the district were Santo’s electronic communication with students in which he sent lewd messages, his ability to seclude pupils in private areas and his sitting and lying down with young females on a couch in his classroom, the suit states.
Santo groomed one Lindbergh School plaintiff by talking to her about private matters such as her family and personal life, hugged her, called her his daughter and told her that “if it were up to him, he would give her a better life,” according to the suit.
Santo gave the girl a passing grade even though she did not complete her work, failed examinations and did not participate in class, the suit states.
Another plaintiff was groomed for abuse by Jennifer Santo, then a Rogers Middle School teacher, by also speaking with her about private matters as well as driving her to the Santo home, where the plaintiff met Mark Santo and was sexually abused from 2014-17, the suit states.
Santo was initially charged in May 2020 with committing a lewd act at his home in La Mirada in 2015 with a 13-year-old girl who was a family friend. The District Attorney’s Office subsequently added charges involving the other two victims.
The prosecution alleged that Santo inappropriately touched one of his students at Lindbergh School during the 2012-13 school year and forced oral sex in 2018 on an 18-year-old woman who had been one of his students in the seventh grade, the Long Beach Post reported.
