In 2021, as a new reporter at KQED, I covered the case of former elementary school teacher Joseph Brian Houg, who was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for sexually abusing 10 of his students. For over twenty years, he had taught at the same school in the San Francisco Bay Area. Were there any red flags? I soon found parents on social media who said they had been complaining to school officials about Houg for years. I was also aware that schools could disclose such complaints once they had been verified or if any teachers faced disciplinary action. I submitted public records requests to Houg’s school—something anyone is free to do—and received 43 pages of documents within a few months. They showed that parents had reported Houg to the principal at least four times since 2013. They reported him for requiring students to undress to their underwear in class to try on costumes for a play he was directing, and for entering their changing room. They also accused him of touching boys on the chest or stomach and slapping one boy on the buttocks.
