He was fired for sexually harassing students. California still allowed him to continue teaching.

Jason Agan was impossible to miss at Angelo Rodriguez High School. The San Francisco Bay Area teacher was loud and gregarious, a fixture on campus since the Fairfield school opened in 2001. He led student government and called himself the man behind the curtain, organizing pep rallies and proms. He taught AP calculus, so advanced math students would end up in his class, jostling for his approval and letters of recommendation. Some considered him a mentor who inspired a love of mathematics – and even a second father.

But for years, students also whispered about Agan’s behavior, according to interviews with 14 Rodriguez High graduates, most of whom he had taught. He touched some of them in public in ways that made them uncomfortable, they said, including hugging students and massaging their shoulders. And he seemed determined to enforce the dress code, denouncing girls whose shorts were too short.

Nearly two decades into Agan’s tenure and in the wake of the #MeToo movement, students have had enough. At least 11 students and one parent filed written complaints about his behavior with school administrators in 2018, asking them to stop at least twice, according to an investigation by KQED and ProPublica. In January 2019, the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District took steps to fire him, suspending him without pay.

Agan pushed back, and nearly a year later, an independent panel convened by the state to hear his case deemed him “unfit to teach.” The committee’s decision meant that the popular educator was officially dismissed from the position where he had spent his entire teaching career.

But the committee’s review focused only on his employment in that one school district, and its findings have not been made public. It would be up to the state’s teacher licensing agency to determine whether additional disciplinary measures would be imposed, including whether Agan could continue teaching in California public schools.

Over the next three years, Agan was hired at a second school, then a third. During that time, the state suspended his teaching license for a week for his behavior at his first school. Then, Agan faced another charge of unwanted touching — this time, by an eighth-grader at his second school, according to school records. The state’s teacher accreditation agency did not inform other schools or the parents of students in Agan’s classes of the full extent of what was happening at Rodriguez High.

Agan, now 47, did not respond to multiple requests for an interview, and someone at his address hung up when a reporter rang his apartment bell and identified herself. He also did not respond to questions sent by email or certified mail to his home regarding the students’ accusations and his employment history. He had previously denied any sexual motivation in touching students, telling the independent panel that he was simply offering support and encouragement to students – not massaging them, according to media reports.

An in-depth review of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing by KQED and ProPublica shows a pattern of delays and inaction, combined with a lack of transparency, that allowed educators to continue teaching after school districts reported them to the state for sexual harassment or other misconduct of a sexual nature. Agan’s case is one of at least 67 cases in which the state failed to revoke educators’ professional licenses after school districts determined they had sexually harassed students or committed other types of sexual misconduct, according to a review of available records from 2019 to 2025 obtained by media outlets. At least 14 of those educators have been rehired by other schools, and of those, at least 12, including Agan, still work in education, according to a review of school websites and employment records provided by the schools.

Anita Fitzhugh, a spokeswoman for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, said the state automatically revokes teachers’ credentials when they are convicted of criminal sexual offenses, but not necessarily when a district determines they have committed sexual misconduct. She said it’s the state Legislature — not the licensing agency — that determines what type of misconduct results in automatic revocation.

The agency appoints a committee to evaluate noncriminal cases of misconduct, she said. Agan has not been charged with a crime.

“The Commission’s authority balances the protection of students as well as the legal rights of educators who have been charged but not convicted of specific crimes,” Fitzhugh said in a written statement.

The agency’s disciplinary process is unique among licensing agencies in California in that it remains secret, Fitzhugh said. The fact that a teacher was disciplined is noted on a state Accredited Educators website, but the database does not explain why.

In contrast, licensing agencies governing dozens of other professions in California, including doctors, nurses, police officers, and lawyers, make the reasons why disciplinary action was imposed readily available on their websites. And at least 12 states, including Oregon, Washington and Florida, do the same for teachers.

“If our job as teachers is to keep children safe, we need to be held accountable for the things we do that could harm them,” said Alicia DeRollo, a longtime teacher who served as one of 19 commissioners of California’s teacher licensing agency from 2011 to 2020.

Amid this oversight gap, Agan has found two new jobs and remains in class.

Student complaints begin to pile up

For 17 years, Agan taught at Rodriguez High, a sprawling outdoor campus nestled along rolling hills where cows graze. The school serves the suburban town of Fairfield, halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento.

Then, in 2018, several sophomores in his accelerated math class reported him to school administrators.

One girl claimed he took her phone out of her back pocket while she sat to take a test and massaged girls’ shoulders in class, according to school records. Assistant principal Gary Hiner warned Agan to be careful, sharing that students told him they were uncomfortable when the teacher walked around the classroom and touched them, according to a summary Hiner wrote about the oral warning.

In March 2018, a father emailed another administrator after Agan wore a shirt to school that used the Pi symbol to spell “Pimp.” The father wrote that a teacher should not wear a shirt mocking someone who “sexually exploits people for profit.”

This time, Assistant Principal Allison Klein emailed Agan, reminding him that school was not the place to “physically touch students, make inappropriate innuendos, or make tasteless jokes.”

But the following school year, more students complained, records show. In October 2018, a student told her school counselor, and then Hiner, that Agan came up behind her and began massaging her neck under her long hair. The student said she felt violated and frozen, not knowing what to do, records show. She told her peers about Agan to see if others had had similar experiences, and told Hiner that those classmates told her he had also made inappropriate comments and touching students in his leadership class.

The student was so distraught that she asked to leave math class and had a panic attack two days later in the school psychologist’s office, school records show. Neither Hiner nor Klein agreed to be interviewed.

Within weeks, at least nine other students filed written complaints, alleging that Agan massaged their shoulders and singled out female students for what they wore.

“This was a person who crossed the line and we are not afraid to report this person,” said Julia Steed, a 15-year-old girl. sophomore when she wrote to school administrators, alleging that Agan “had a tendency to touch students,” including feeling his head during class. “We were like, ‘Oh no, we’re not taking care of that.'”

Steed, now 23, told KQED and ProPublica that she and her classmates were encouraged by the #MeToo movement to speak out as teens across the country became more aware of boundaries and consent. In late 2018, the Fairfield-Suisun school board approved the superintendent’s recommendation to fire Agan.

Agan objected and demanded a hearing, which tenured California public school teachers facing termination are entitled to. His case would be assessed by an independent committee, which would decide whether to uphold the district’s recommendation.

School districts rarely lay off tenured teachers because losing a case is expensive and the teacher may end up on the job. Instead, many districts negotiate agreements allowing teachers to resign.

But in Agan’s case, Kris Corey, Fairfield-Suisun’s superintendent at the time, said she and the school board believed they had a strong case for dismissal.

“The board said, ‘We don’t care how much it costs. We’re going to a hearing,'” Corey said. “That’s the principle of the problem. It’s not acceptable.”

Over eight days at the Fairfield-Suisun district office starting in July 2019, the three-member panel, including a teacher selected by Agan, heard testimony from students, teachers and administrators.

Seven students, three administrators, a former guidance counselor and a parent spoke out against Agan. Six of the students told the panel that Agan made them feel uncomfortable by touching them or commenting on their clothing, including calling one girl “short shorts.” Four of them, including Steed, said they didn’t feel comfortable going to Agan for extra math help because they didn’t want to be alone with him. Several also said they refrained from speaking in class to avoid attracting his attention.

Four alumni, three teachers and one staff member spoke on Agan’s behalf. Former students described Agan as a supportive mentor and caring teacher and said they felt at home in his classroom. All four students said he squeezed, rubbed or touched their shoulders, but that his actions did not make them uncomfortable.

One of those students told KQED and ProPublica that her opinion of the teacher’s behavior had changed in recent years. She said she considered his physical contact normal when she was in high school. But her perspective has changed as she’s gotten older, she said.

“I went to college and talked to people and realized this wasn’t normal,” said the former student, now in her 20s. “Come to think of it, I would have jumped the other way, to be quite honest.”

During the hearing, Agan said he would have stopped touching students’ shoulders if he had been clearly warned, according to a summary included in the panel’s decision. He said he felt comfortable with his leadership students and that his actions carried over to the math students, even though he was not as close to them. He denied massaging the students’ shoulders and said the students misinterpreted the “pressing or shaking” as massage. He said he did not intend to make students uncomfortable and expressed regret that some students did not feel safe in his class.

One of the administrators, former human resources director Mike Minahen, told the panel that the details shared by students during his investigation “weighed heavily” on him. He said it was unusual for high school students to “break the code” and file a complaint against a teacher, “especially a leadership teacher who has influence over student activities throughout the school.” Minahen, who has retired, declined to comment.

In November 2019, the panel unanimously decided that Agan should lose his job. Even Agan’s chosen teacher agreed.

“The likelihood of a repeat offense is high,” the committee wrote in its decision. “Over time, he showed that he could not or would not exercise good judgment.”

One of the panelists told KQED and ProPublica that she voted to terminate Agan’s employment in part because his alleged behavior persisted even after administrators issued warnings.

“His actions were encouraging students, especially young women, not to take advanced math courses. They didn’t want to be touched,” said the speaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize her work in education. “All of this has a direct impact on their access to good universities, because he was a calculus professor. »

In December 2019, school district officials sent documents about Agan’s firing, along with details of their investigation, to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, California’s educator licensing agency, as state law requires for public school teachers who resign or are fired for misconduct. The educator licensing agency would decide whether Agan would face additional disciplinary action, such as receiving a public warning, facing a suspension or losing his license to teach in a California public school.

The disciplinary process typically takes a year, according to the agency.

It would take nearly 500 days for the state’s licensing board to decide what to do in Agan’s case.

How Agan came back to class

As the state studied the issue, Agan applied for a job at a Sacramento middle school about an hour from Rodriguez High in May 2020. It was a time of increased teacher shortages, particularly in subjects like math, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Agan provided excellent letters of recommendation from former teaching colleagues in his application, which school representatives provided to KQED and ProPublica in response to a public records request.

Any school searching Agan’s name in the California credential database would have seen a clean record and valid credentials indicating he was legally qualified to teach. Indeed, even though the state’s licensing agency knew that Agan had been fired for what the district described as sexual harassment among students, California law prevented the agency from releasing information about the matter. Nowhere in online public records he said Agan was still under investigation by the agency — not to mention the details of his employment record.

In his application for a job at the college, Agan acknowledged that he was fired after being “accused of inappropriately touching students’ shoulders during class.” He wrote that he disagreed with the dismissal and explained that he often placed his hands on students’ shoulders while helping them.

“Math is a difficult subject for many and my actions were meant as a means of encouragement; a way of saying, ‘It’s okay that you’re having problems, keep trying,'” Agan wrote, adding that he recognized that his actions “made some students uncomfortable.”

Agan began teaching at Ephraim Williams College Prep Middle School this fall. The 175-person school is part of the Fortune network of charter schools. Ephraim Williams administrators at the time of Agan’s hiring did not respond to questions about how the school vetted him.

Former Fortune human resources consultant Rick Rubino, who helped the college recruit, interview and hire candidates at the time Agan was applying, said the school was unaware that Agan’s former employer had concluded that he had sexually harassed several students. “Do you think a reasonable school district or superintendent would hire this person?” » Rubino said. “No. So clearly Fortune School did not obtain this information.”

Rubino said he would “guarantee that someone at Fortune would call the principal of the school where Jason Agan taught in Fairfield and get a good report.” He said he doesn’t remember calling that call himself.

The former principal of Rodriguez High did not respond to questions about a reference check. But a Fortune School spokeswoman, Tiffany Moffatt, said school officials followed “all state guidelines and regulations and conducted a thorough review, making decisions based on the information we had.” »

It wasn’t until the end of Agan’s first school year at Ephraim Williams that the state licensing agency issued its decision regarding his actions at his first school. In May 2021, the state suspended Agan’s license for seven days; two of those days fell on a weekend. The sanction — accompanied by a red flag icon — appeared in the state’s public database of credentialed educators. This would be the only visible clue the schools would have that something was wrong with Agan’s professional history.

Corey, the former Fairfield-Suisun Unified superintendent, told KQED and ProPublica that she was “flabbergasted” that he was only suspended for seven days.

“It was a real disconnect from what happened,” Corey said. “What a disservice to these girls.”

Steed, one of Agan’s accusers, said students did the right thing and shared their concerns about Agan with their school, only for adults at the state level to give him the opportunity to teach elsewhere.

“What’s the point of going through this whole process?” she said.

A schoolboy details unwanted touching

In September 2021, a month after Fortune students returned to in-person learning, an eighth-grade student at Agan’s second school complained about his conduct.

The student told her doctor during a routine medical exam that Agan had touched her lower back, according to a summary of the complaint.

The girl’s mother told KQED and ProPublica that she reported the incident to the manager, who put the mother and daughter in touch with Rubino, Fortune’s human resources consultant. The mother told Rubino that Agan gave her daughter disproportionate attention.

The girl, who is now 17, spoke to KQED and ProPublica on the condition that only her middle name, Sherelle, be used because she is a minor. Leslie, the student’s mother, is also identified by her middle name to protect her daughter’s identity.

At that same meeting, Sherelle told Rubino that Agan removed his hand from her lower back after she asked him to stop, and he returned to the front of the class. But he returned moments later and put his hand on her shoulder, according to a warning letter Rubino wrote to Agan after interviewing the girl.

” I didn’t feel respected. I felt uncomfortable. I felt angry,” Sherelle told the media about the incident. “I felt like just talking didn’t matter.”

In his letter, Rubino asked Agan to stop touching the students and “remember” his praise for the girl. Rubino also warned that non-compliance could result in additional disciplinary action, up to and including suspension or termination.

Agan denied the allegations in a written response to Rubino obtained by KQED and ProPublica. “I would like to go on record as saying that I dispute that the fact that I touched is listed as a ‘fact.’ [the student] in the lower back,” Agan wrote. “I have been extremely diligent in avoiding any personal contact with academics due to my prior experience.”

Leslie had texted Rubino expressing concern about how Agan had been selected for the job. after he said he saw messages online from students at his former school alleging he touched them inappropriately.

“In fact, I was the one who investigated the matter in the Fairfield Suisun School District when Mr. Agan was running,” Rubino responded the same day in messages reviewed by KQED and ProPublica. “I also checked social media and Google to see if I could find any information about the Fairfield incident, but I couldn’t find anything.”

Rubino did not respond to subsequent questions about the details of his investigation or what he knew about Agan’s conduct at the teacher’s previous school.

After the state licensing agency recommended that educators be disciplined, California law allows it to disclose its findings, which include a summary of the case, to current supervisors and potential employers who request them within five years. Fortune appears to have never requested such findings, according to logs of such requests between 2020 and 2024 provided by the agency to KQED and ProPublica. A Fortune spokesperson did not say why the charter school did not request this information.

Leslie said her daughter’s experience at Ephraim Williams only got worse after she reported Agan. Mathematics has always been Sherelle’s favorite subject. But as the school year progressed, his grades in Agan’s class fell. She needed help but said Agan ignored her.

With just a few weeks left in the school year, Leslie pulled her daughter out of Ephraim Williams to finish eighth grade at another school.

Starting the following year, in 2022, records show that Fortune offered Agan a role supporting new teachers rather than assigning him his own class. Wealth trustees did not respond to questions about why he was offered the job, which he turned down because he had received another job offer in the Bay Area.

“Thank you for the last two years,” Agan wrote upon resigning from the school. “It means more to me than you could ever imagine.”

By August 2022, Agan would begin teaching at the Clifford School, which serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade in Redwood City. He was established in 2024.

Wendy Kelly, assistant superintendent of the Redwood City School District, declined to answer questions about Agan’s hiring or to say whether the school district knew he had been accused of misconduct at two previous schools. She told KQED and ProPublica that the district, when hiring, typically calls applicants’ immediate supervisors and checks the database of licensed educators.

She said school districts rely on the Commission’s decisions on teacher accreditation to “put the best people in the classroom.”

“I was happy to see the suspension was only seven days,” Kelly said of Agan’s discipline. “I have to believe that when the CTC reinstates the teacher whose problem has been resolved or lessons learned from, consequences are in place, which is why he is employable in the next organization.»

How we reported this story

KQED and ProPublica obtained detailed teacher disciplinary records from school districts after filing public records requests with California’s 300 largest districts. We requested records on sexual misconduct complaints from 2019 to 2025, including all reports to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. More than 150 districts provided documents. If the district determined that an educator had engaged in misconduct that it characterized as sexual, including sexual harassment through unwanted touching, sending sexual electronic messages, and making sexual remarks, we checked the state’s licensing database to see if the state had revoked the teacher’s license or imposed other discipline.